Lata (

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...

: Lāṭa) was a historical region of India, located in the southern part of the present-day Gujarat state. Mahi river in the north and Narmada or Tapi River in south.

Bharuch Bharuch (), formerly known as Broach, is a city at the mouth of the river Narmada in Gujarat in western India. Bharuch is the administrative headquarters of Bharuch District. The city of Bharuch and surroundings have been settled since tim ...

is a major city and former capital of the region. (marked here in modern day Gujarat state)." latitude="21.861" longitude="73.477" zoom="6" width="400" height="300" align="right">

Location and extent

''Shakti-Sangam-Tantra'', a Shakt sampradaya text composed before 7th century CE, states that Lata was located to the west of Avanti (India) and to the north-west of

Vidarbha Vidarbha (Pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, �id̪əɾbʱə is a geographical region in the east of the Indian state of Maharashtra and a Proposed states and union territories of India#Maharashtra, proposed state of central India, comprising th ...

. According to Tej Ram Sharma, Lata's northern boundary was formed by the Mahi River, or at times, by the Narmada River. In the south, Lata extended up to the

Purna River Purna is a town in Parbhani district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Purna may also refer to: * Purna River (tributary of Godavari), a river of Maharashtra, India * Purna River (tributary of Tapti), a river of Maharashtra, India ** Purna Dam, ...

, and at times, up to

Daman Daman may refer to: place Places *Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, a union territory in India **Daman and Diu, former union territory of India, now part of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu **Daman district, India ***Daman, India ...

. It included

Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is now ...

, Kheda and Vadodara. According to Georg Bühler, Lata was the area between Mahi River and

Kim River Kim is a river in the state of Gujarat, western India, whose origin is in Zarna village and Zarnavadi village the hills of Satpuda. Its drainage basin has a maximum length of . The total catchment area of the basin is . The creek runs near the ...

, and its major city was Bharuch.

Historical mentions

The Lata region is not mentioned in the earliest of the Puranas or the

Sanskrit epics Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent, traditionally called ''Kavya'' (or ''Kāvya''; Sanskrit: काव्य, IAST: ''kāvyá''). The ''Ramayana'' and the ''Mahabharata'', which were originally composed in ...

. The earliest mention of the region probably comes from the writings of the 2nd century Greco-Egyptian writer Ptolemy. The Larike mentioned by him is identified with Lata by multiple scholars including

H. D. Sankalia Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia (10 December 1908 – 28 January 1989) was an Indian Sanskrit scholar and archaeologist specialising in proto- and ancient Indian history. He is considered to have pioneered archaeological excavation techniques in In ...

and D. C. Sircar, The Greek name might have derived from Lār-deśa ("Lār country"), the Prakrit form of Lāṭa. Ptolemy mentions that the delta of the river Mophis (identified with Mahi) and Barygaza (Bharuch) were located in Larike. Vatsayayana in his '' Kama Sutra'' of the third century calls it ''Láṭa''; describes it as situated to the west of Malwa; and gives an account of several of the customs of its people. In Sanskrit writings and inscriptions later than the third century, the name is frequently found. In the sixth century, the astronomer Varahamihira mentions the country of Láṭa, and the name also appears as Láṭa in an Ajanta and in a Mandasor inscription of the fifth century. It is common in the later inscriptions (a.d. 700–1200) of the Chaulukya, Gurjara and Ráshṭrakúṭa kings as well as in the writings of Arab travellers and historians between the eighth and twelfth centuries. '' Dipavamsa'' and '' Mahavamsa'' mention that Prince Vijaya came from the Sinhapura city in the Lala or Lada region. This region is variously identified as Lata in Gujarat or Rarh in Bengal. In the

Gupta Gupta () is a common surname or last name of Indian origin. It is based on the Sanskrit word गोप्तृ ''goptṛ'', which means 'guardian' or 'protector'. According to historian R. C. Majumdar, the surname ''Gupta'' was adopted by se ...

-era records, Lata is mentioned as a '' vishaya'' (

: viṣaya) or district. The Lāṭa-viṣaya was well-known until the 8th century. The Latesvara country mentioned in some early Gurjara-Pratihara and

Rashtrakuta Rashtrakuta (IAST: ') (r. 753-982 CE) was a royal Indian dynasty ruling large parts of the Indian subcontinent between the sixth and 10th centuries. The earliest known Rashtrakuta inscription is a 7th-century copper plate grant detailing their ...

records is probably same as Lata. The

Chalukyas of Lata The Chalukyas of Lata were an Indian dynasty, which ruled the Lata region of present-day Gujarat during 10th and 11th centuries. They ruled as feudatories of the Western Chalukyas in their early years, and were ultimately defeated by the Chauluk ...

ruled the region during the 10th and 11th centuries.

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{Gujarat Historical Indian regions History of Gujarat