The region of Chhattisgarh, geographically encompassed with hills and forests all sides, is a compact unit and is drained by many rivers. This peculiar natural set up seems to have helped in developing its culture and civilisation with its own distinct characteristics. In ancient times it seems to have been divided into two parts. While some of its northern areas along with adjacent portion of modern Orissa state formed the part of Kosala or Mahakosala and some portion of Bastar district was included in Dandakaranya or Mahakantara. We have sufficient evidence regarding its ancient culture when we come to the regime of Sarabhapuriya dynasty which was followed, successively and sometimes simultaneously, by the Panduvamsins of Mekala, Panduvamsins of Kosala, Somavamsins of Kosala, Kalachuris of Ratanpur and some other minor dynasties. The present work is based on the evidence gleaned from place names mentioned in the grants of these dynasties, which have been classified in this study on the basis of prefixes and suffixes and are arranged under different heads such as topography, flora, fauna, settlement, administrative divisions, social, economic and religious conditions chronologically. The present work is the first ever systematic attempt towards tracing the culture and historical geography of Chhattisgarh on the basis of place names corroborated and supplemented, wherever possible, with the archaeological, literary, sculptural and epigraphical data.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Malati Mahajan
Dr. Malati Mahajan who retired as lecturer from the Post Graduate Teaching Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology of Nagpur University, Nagpur is the student of the same department. She passed her M.A. examination in first division and was awarded Motilal Nehru centenary prize for standing first in order of merit. She was the recipient of the U.G.C. fellowship while working for her Ph.D. thesis under the guidance of Dr. S.B. Deo. After Ph.D. she worked as research assistant with Dr. S.B. Deo and completed the work of translation of the "Topographical List of Inscriptions found in Maharashtra and Goa". Again I the same capacity she worked with Dr. Ajay Mitra Shastri and completed the Project "Dictionary of Place names from Inscriptions found in Maharashtra and Goa". She has participated in some all India conferences of Place Name Society of India and presented good number of research papers on different aspects of Cultural and Historical Geography of ancient Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh which have been widely appreciated. She was elected as General President of the Thirteenth All India Annual Conference of Place Name Society held at Udupi (Karnataka) in April, 1992. She is the author of books, Development of Material Culture in India (Based on Archaeological evidence corroborated and supplemented with evidence from other sources); Cultural history of Maharashtra and Goa from Place Names in Inscriptions found in Maharashtra and Goa; Madhya Pradesh-Cultural and Historical Geography from Place Names in Inscription and Chhattisgarh- A Geography from Place Names in Inscriptions.
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