Journey
Dakshiṇāpatha — the Great Southern Road
The great southern highway from Shrāvastī and Magadha across the Vindhyas and the Narmadā down to the Sātavāhana Deccan and the western-coast Roman-trade ports. Fourteen stops from Shrāvastī through the Malwa-plateau trade hub at Ujjain and the Narmadā crossing at Mahishmati to the Sātavāhana capital Pratishṭhāna, the Ajanta-Ellora-Junnar monastic belt funded by the merchants who travelled this road, and the Konkan ports (Bharuch, Sopara, Kalyan) that connected the Deccan interior to the Red Sea.
Stops (10)
- Shrāvastī · Shrāvastī — the northern springboard
The Kosala capital on the north bank of the Rapti where the Buddha spent 24 of his 45 rains-retreats at the Jetavana. Shrāvastī was one of the two traditional starting points of the Dakshiṇāpatha (the other being Pataliputra). The road ran south-west from here across the Gangetic plain towards the Kaushambi junction.
- Pātaliputra · Pāṭaliputra — the Magadhan springboard
The imperial Magadhan-Mauryan capital was the second northern anchor of the Dakshiṇāpatha. Ashoka’s administrative kernel ran the route south-west from here through Vidisha and Ujjain to the Sātavāhana Deccan and the western ports.
- Kaushāmbī pillar (now Allahabad Fort) · Kauśāmbī — the grand intersection
On the Yamuna 50 km south of Prayaga, Kauśāmbī was the junction where the Uttarāpatha travellers coming east from Mathura stepped onto the Dakshiṇāpatha going south to Ujjain. Ashoka’s pillar at Kaushambi marks the crossing.
- Vidisha · Vidiśā
A central trade post just north of the Vindhya mountain passes. Ashoka’s empress Devi was from Vidisha and sponsored the great stupa at the nearby Sanchi; the Heliodorus pillar at Besnagar beside Vidisha is the earliest surviving Vaishnava-devotional inscription in India (c. 110 BCE). The Dakshiṇāpatha climbed from here into the Vindhya passes.
- Ujjain / Avantikā · Ujjayinī / Ujjain — the Malwa trade hub
The dominant commercial-and-astronomical hub of Malwa and the first prime meridian of Indian mathematics; the great northern-south link where all southern and western trade consolidated. Ujjain was the Mauryan southern viceregal seat where the young Ashoka served before his accession, and later the Gupta second city.
- Māhishmatī / Maheshwar · Māhiṣmatī / Maheshwar — the Narmadā crossing
The primary crossing point over the Narmadā for the Dakshiṇāpatha. Māhiṣmatī was the Haihaya capital of the Puranic period, later the 18th-century Holkar seat under Ahilyabai, and the ghats on the Narmada at Maheshwar are among the most-recited sacred bathing-places on the river's parikrama.
- Pratishthana / Paithan · Pratishṭhāna / Paithan — the Sātavāhana capital
The Sātavāhana capital on the Godavari and the southern terminus of the Dakshiṇāpatha; the dynasty’s own title was Lords of the Dakshiṇāpatha. From Pratishṭhāna the empire controlled the trade carried from the Deccan interior to the western-coast Roman-trade ports; the Paithani silk-and-cotton weaving tradition descends from this trade.
- Ajantā caves · Ajantā caves
The 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monasteries in the Waghur gorge north of Pratishṭhāna, cut in two phases — 1st-c. BCE Satavahana and 5th-c. CE Vakataka. Ajanta was funded by merchant guilds (shrenis) travelling the Dakshiṇāpatha; the inscription in Cave 10 names a specific banker's donation. The famous murals include the Persian embassy to Pulakeśin II.
- Ellorā · Ellorā caves
The 34 rock-cut cave temples at Ellora cut between the 6th and 10th centuries CE under Kalachuri, Rashtrakuta and Yadava patronage. Ellora sits on the Dakshiṇāpatha branch that climbed from Pratishṭhāna through the Western Ghats to the Konkan ports; the Kailasa Temple (cave 16) under Krishna I of the Rashtrakutas is the climax of the road's monastic patronage.
- Junnar cave groups · Junnar cave groups
Rock-cut Buddhist cave groups in the Western Ghats north of Pune, 25 km from Khandala Pass. Junnar's Buddhist monastic cells were cut in the 1st-3rd centuries CE and funded by the merchant guilds moving goods between Pratishṭhāna and the Konkan port of Kalyan. Junnar’s cave-wall inscriptions name the shreṇīs and sārtha vāhas (caravan leaders) by name.