In this monograph an attempt is made to set forth the history and culture of Paithan from the early historic period till the fifteenth century. During this long span of history, Paithan has been the centre of intense political activities and fervent intellectual exercises and religious practices. Paithan, known as Pratishthanpura in ancient times and as Bethan to the ancient Greek travellers and geographers was the capital city of the Satavahana empire and also a prosperous trading centre which was well connected with other commercial towns such as Ter and Broach.
Situated on the banks of the Godavari river, Paithan was a sacred place which inspired many saints, philosophers and poets, such as Jnaneswar and Eknath whose literary works have become illustrious throughout Maharashtra. Endowed with a rich cultural past and capacity for absorbing the shocks and transformations by historical change into its own characteristic personality, Paithan could be favourably compared with sacred and ancient towns, such as Varanasi, Mathura, Patna, Valabhi etc.
Archaeologically also, Paithan has been extremely rich and it would provide invaluable evidence for the reconstruction of its past history. While the environs of Paithan have given evidence of pre and proto-historic antiquities; Paithan proper has yielded archaeological data of the historical period from the Satavahana to the Yadava times. Even now the extensive mounds at Paithan yield antiquities of different periods. It is difficult to over emphasise the importance of Paithan and possibly no other city in Maharashtra has such a long and varied history to its credit.
The present work attempts at a total recall of historical processes of the evolving religious practices and the metaphysical speculations which centred round the ancient city of Paithan. The specific context of the findings are studied with reference to the evidences provided by the archaeological excavations at Paithan and other Satavahana sites such as Bhokardan, Ter etc. and its literary evidences based on the distinctive religions like Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism and the local traditions and folk lore. The contemporary accounts of the foreign travellers such as Ptolemy, Hieun t'sang etc. are also taken into account for further confirmation.
The author expresses his deep sense of gratitude to late Dr. R. S. Gupte who had encouraged him to take the present theme for investigation. However, due to his sudden demise, from the beginning was supervised by Dr. T. V. Pathy, the Head of the Department of History and Ancient Indian Culture, Marathwada University, Aurangabad. I express my deep gratitude to Shri Balasaheb Patil, the well known art collector of Paithan, who ungrudingly placed his valuable art-treasure at my disposal. I am also indebted to Dr. S. B. Deo, the Director of Deccan College and Postgraduate Research Institute, Pune, for enlightening me in archaeological and numismatic problems related to Paithan. My special thanks are due to my friend Shri Mukund Deuskar for his precious help.
I am grateful to Maha-Mahopadhyay late Shri D. V. Potdar, a doyen of historical researchers for his valuable guidance. I am also thankful to Prof. G. H. Khare who evinced great interest in my research work and to Dr. V. R. N. Prasad, Reader, Department of English, Marathwada University, Aurangabad, who had taken the trouble of going through the manuscript.
I am also thankful to my friend Prof. P. G. Patil and my colleagues for their timely help. I am thankful to Shri P. L. Barwal and Shri B. H. Shinde, for typing work and for providing photographs respectively. Shri M. R. Dhumal and Shri M. R. Pimpre have helped me in several ways and I thank them both.
I also thank all my friends and students who have shown keen interest in my investigation.
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