Aparanta

Aparanta, or Aparantaka (meaning "Western border") was a geographical region of ancient India. It corresponded to the northern part of the Konkan region on the western coast of India. English civil servant-turned-historian J. F. Fleet believed that the Aparanta region included Kathiawad, Kutch, and Sindh, beside Konkan. However, historical records make it clear that the extent of Aparanta was much smaller.[1]

The Junagadh inscription of Rudradaman mentions that during Ashoka's reign, a Yonaraja (literally; Ionian, or Greek, King), Tushaspa was the governor of Aparanta.[2] A Buddhist text, the Mahavamsa states (xii.5) that at the conclusion of the Third Buddhist Council (c.250 BCE), a Yona (Greek) Thera (monk) Dhammarakkhita was sent here by the emperor Ashoka to preach Dhamma[3] and 37,000 people embraced Buddhism due to his effort (Mahavamsa, xii.34-6). According to Buddhist scholar A.K. Warder, the Dharmaguptaka sect originated here.[4]

Aparanta is regarded as an umbrella term for Shurparakadesha for Konkan, to include in the North and Gomantaka in the south with the river Kundalika to serving as a dividing line in between the two.[5]

Notes
  1. Sashi Bhusan Chaudhuri (1955). Ethnic Settlements in Ancient India. General. p. 56.
  2. Thapar R. (2001), Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, ISBN 0-19-564445-X, p.128
  3. Thapar R. (2001), Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, ISBN 0-19-564445-X, p.47
  4. Indian Buddhism by A.K. Warder Motilal Banarsidass: 2000. ISBN 81-208-1741-9 pg 278
  5. Kamat Satoskar, B.D. (1982). Gomantak:Prakruti ani Sanskruti(Marathi). Pune: Shubhada publications. p. 39.


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