AncientHindu andBuddhist texts useUttarapatha as the name of the Northern part ofJambudvipa (equivalent of present-dayNorth India), one of the "continents" inHindu mythology. In modern times, theSanskrit worduttarapatha is sometimes used to denote the geographical regions ofNorth India,Western India,Central India,Eastern India,Northeast India,Pakistan,Bangladesh, andNepal in just one term. The pronunciation of the word varies depending on the regional language of the speaker.
The name is derived from theSanskrit termsuttara, for north, andpatha, for road. Initially, the term Uttarapatha referred to thenorthern high road, the main trade route that followed along the riverGanges, crossed the Indo-Gangetic watershed, ran through thePunjab toTaxila (Gandhara) and further toZariaspa orBalkh (Bactria) inCentral Asia. The eastern terminus of the Uttarapatha was Tamraliptika orTamluk located at the mouth ofGanges inWestBengal. This route became increasingly important due to increasing maritime contacts with the seaports on the eastern coast ofIndia during theMaurya rule. Later, Uttarapatha was the name lent to the vast expanse of region which thenorthern high road traversed.
The boundaries of Uttarapatha, as a region, are nowhere precisely defined in the Buddhist or any other ancient source. According to some writers, the Uttarapatha included the whole of Northern India, fromAnga in the east toGandhara in the north-west, and from theHimalaya in the north to theVindhya in the south.
The Jambudvipa region to the south of Uttarapatha was known asMajjhimadesa (or the Middle Country) in Buddhist texts andMadhyadesa in Puranic texts.
According to Buddhist texts,Kamboja andGandhara, two of the sixteenMahajanapadas or great nations referred to in theAnguttara Nikaya and Chulla-Niddesa belonged to theUttarapatha.[1]
The Buddhist texts include the remaining fourteen of the Mahajanapadas, namelyKasi,Kosala,Anga,Magadha,Vajji,Malla,Chedi,Vamsa (or Vatsa),Kuru,Panchala,Matsya (or Maccha),Surasena,Avanti andAssaka in theMajjhimadesa division.
Numerous Puranic literature terms refer to the Bahlikas, Pahlavas, Sakas, Paradas, Ramathas, Kambojas, Daradas, Tushars, Chinas, Barbaras, Keikayas, Abhiras, Sindhus, Soviras and others as the tribes of Uttarapatha (Kirfel list of the Uttarapatha countries of the Bhuvanakosa).
Uttarapatha was famous from very early times for its fine breed ofhorses and the horse-dealers. There are ancient references to an ongoing trade between the nations of Uttarapatha and the states ofEast India. Buddhist and Puranic sources attest that the merchants and horse-dealers from Uttarapatha would bring horses and other goods for sale down to eastern Indian places like Savatthi (Kosala),Benares (Kasi),Pataliputra (Magadha) andPragjyotisha (Assam).
The great Indian epic,Mahabharata gives an account of the ancient roadways. It refers to Uttarapatha (northern highway) which linked the territories ofKirata (perhaps ofMagadha),Kamboja,Gandhara andYavana countries (Shanti Parva, 207.43; Foreign Trade and Commerce in Ancient India, 2003, p 107, Prakash Chandra Prasad)
Documentation exists that the nations from the Uttarapatha like Kamboja, Gandhara and Kashmira were actively engaged in commercial intercourse not only with the states of Gangetic valley but also withBrahmadesh,Suvarnabhumi, south-westChina and other nations in theSoutheast Asia[citation needed]. When the Chinese envoy Chiang Kien was inGandhara (circa c 127 BCE), he found to his great surprise that bamboos and textiles fromsouth-western China were sold in the local markets.On personal enquiry, he learnt that these goods were brought to eastern India (Bengal) throughYunnan,Burma and then carried all the way from eastern India to Bactria acrossIndia andAfghanistan along the Uttarapatha or the northern high road.
The ancient Pali literature says that merchants from the nations of Uttarapatha were engaged in international trade following the well-knownKamboja-Dvaravati Caravan Route. Merchants from Kamboja, Gandhara, Sovira,Sindhu and other places used to sail from ports ofBharukaccha (modernBharuch) andSupparaka Pattana (modern Nalla-Sopara, nearMumbai) for trade with Southern India,Sri Lanka and nations of Southeast Asia. Huge trade ships sailed from there directly to south Myanmar. This trade had been going on for hundreds of years before theBuddha. Some merchants from northern India had settled in Myanmar, in the ports and towns located at the mouths ofIrrawaddy, Citranga (Sittang) and Salavana (Salween) rivers. The case in point is of two merchant brothersTapassu andBhalluka or Bhalluka fromPokkharavati (=Pushkalavati, present Carasadda) in the Gandhara-Kamboja region who also had their trade settlement in Myanmar.[2] The name Irrawaddy for the chief river of Burma (Myanmar) was copied from river Irrawati (Ravi) of the northPanjab. There is also a tradition in Ceylon (recorded in the Pūjāvaliya) thatTapassu and Bhalluka visited the east coast ofCeylon and built a Cetiya, there. An inscription also makes a similar record.[3]
Evidence exists that horse-dealers from Kamboja in the Uttarapatha were trading horses as far as Sri Lanka. Dr Don Martino notes that the merchants from northwest Kamboja had been conducting horse trade with Sri Lanka following the west coast of India since remote antiquity (Epigraphia Zeylanka, Vol II, No 13, p 76).
Several ancient cave inscriptions found inAnuradhapura inSri Lanka attest the existence of a Kamboja Goshatha or Samgha (Gote Kabojhiana) and a Grand Kamboja Trade Guild (Kabojiya Mahapughyanam) in ancientSinhala. The terms Kaboja and Kabojiya are the ancient Sinhalese forms of the Uttarapatha Kamboja.
A Pali textSihalavatthu of the fourth century specifically attests to a group of people known asKambojas living in Rohana in Sri Lanka.
A regular horse trade between the nations of Uttarapatha and those of eastern, western and southern India is attested to have been going on as late as the medieval ages. King Devapala (810-850 CE) of Bengal, King Vishnuvardhana Hoysala (1106–1152 CE) ofMysore and King Valabhi Deva of Valbhi/Saurashtra (1185 CE) had powerful fleets of Kamboja horses in theircavalries.
There is also good archaeological evidence ofRoman trade (1 CE to 200 CE) coming into Gandhara/Kamboja and Bactria region in Uttarapatha through theGujarati peninsula. The Roman gold coins imported from Rome into Gandhara were usually melted into bullion in these regions.
Corresponding to Uttarapatha, theDakshinapatha was the name ofsouthern high road which originated fromVaranasi, followed throughUjjaini andNarmada valley to Pratisthana (Paithan) in the Mahajanapada of Ashmaka (in modernMaharashtra), onwards to the western coast of India and running in the southern direction. According toLand of the Seven Rivers: A Brief History of India's Geography bySanjeev Sanyal, the crossing of the two highways made Sarnath (just outside Varanasi) a major place of exchange of goods and ideas in ancient India. Sanyal argues that this is why the Buddha gave his first sermon at Sarnath.[4]
Later, Dakshinapatha was also the name lent to the region of India lying to the south of Vindya through which the Dakshinapatha passed. The nameDeccan for the southern part of India has originated from this ancient Dakshinapatha. The philosophies of the easterners were disseminated precisely by the intercourse that went on along theUttarapatha and theDakishinapatha trade routes.