Suktimati

'''Shuktimati''' ({{Langx|sa|शुक्तिमती|translit=Śuktimatī}}) is the capital city of the Chedi kingdom featured in Hindu literature.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walker |first=Benjamin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8J2RDwAAQBAJ&dq=%C5%9Auktimat%C4%AB+capital&pg=PT27 |title=Hindu World: An Encyclopedic Survey of Hinduism. In Two Volumes. Volume II M-Z |date=2019-04-09 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-62419-3 |pages=27 |language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Citation |last=Raychaudhuri |first=Hem Chandra |title=Political history of ancient India, from the accession of Parikshit to the extinction of the Gupta dynasty |url=https://archive.org/details/politicalhistory00raycuoft |page=66 |year=1923|publisher=Calcutta, Univ. of Calcutta }}</ref>

== Legend == Shuktimati 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hiltebeitel |first=Alf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U4NF8pYxdvIC&dq=%C5%9Auktimat%C4%AB&pg=PA354 |title=Dharma: Its Early History in Law, Religion, and Narrative |date=2011-08-17 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-539423-8 |pages=354 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last =Ganguli | first =Kisari Mohan | title =The Mahabharata of Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa | publisher =Kessinger Publishing | year =2004 | pages =154 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=9WF0wHuFDzIC&pg=PA154 | isbn =1-4191-7125-9 }} </ref>

== Identification == The 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.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://archive.org/details/politicalhistory00raycuoft|last=Raychaudhuri|first=Hem Chandra|title=Political history of ancient India, from the accession of Parikshit to the extinction of the Gupta dynasty|year=1923|page=66|publisher=Calcutta, Univ. of Calcutta }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8qvY8pxVxcwC|last=Chakrabarti|first=Dilip Kumar|chapter=Mahajanapada States of Early Historic India|title=A Comparative Study of Thirty City-state Cultures: An Investigation|year=2000|editor-last=Hansen|editor-first=Mogens Herman|page=387|isbn=9788778761774 }}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{Hindu-myth-stub}} Category:Mahabharata Category:Places in Hindu mythology Category:Ancient Indian cities