Suktimati
Shuktimati (Sanskrit: शुक्तिमती, romanized: Śuktimatī) is the capital city of the Chedi kingdom featured in Hindu literature.[1] It lies on the banks of the eponymous river Shuktimati, which flows through the region. It is referred to as Sotthivati-nagara in the Pali-language Buddhist texts.[2] LegendShuktimati is described to have been built by a Chedi king of the Chandravamsha (Lunar dynasty) known as Uparichara Vasu. The Mahabharata states that the river Shuktimati gives birth to twins (a boy and a girl) after being forced to make love with a mountain called Kolahala. After being freed by the king with a kick, the river gives the twins to him. Uparichara Vasu makes the boy the commander of his armies and marries the girl, Girika.[3][4] IdentificationThe location of Suktimati has not been established with certainty. Historian Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri and F. E. Pargiter believed that it was in the vicinity of Banda, Uttar Pradesh.[5] Archaeologist Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti has proposed that Suktimati can be identified as the ruins of a large early historical city, at a place with the modern-day name Rewa, Madhya Pradesh.[6] References
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