Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/246

 238 KHE " The local traditions of two widely distant countries present almost equal claims to the country of Virata-namely, the peninsula of Gujarat on the western side of India, and the valley of the Brahmaputra on its eastern quarter. In the Mahabhárata, the ráj of Virata is called Matsya, or the country of the fish, and the city is indifferently termed Matsya or Virata. "The local traditions of Gujarat declare that the site of Matsya-nuggur or Viratapur is occupied by the modern town of Dholka, which is situated on the southern coast of the neck of the peninsula. "The local traditions of eastern Bengal are more explicit. The district of Dinagepur is still called Matsya; and the remains of ancient forts, said to be those of Virata and Kichaka, are pointed out to this day as proofs of the truth of the traditions. of fable. Here it was that Bhíma fought against the Asuras ; and it was in this same country that the sage Vyasa was supernaturally born of Matsya, the fish-girl. Whether, however, the ráj of Virata is to be placed in the peninsula of Guzerat or in the region of eastern Bengal, it is in either case far too distant from the neighbourhood of Hastinapur to admit of such campaigns as those of Duryodhana and Susarman." Now none of the difficulties which attend the identification of Raja Bairát's capital with any of these distant towns are met with, if we accept this little Oudh village as the real scene of Bhíma's exploit, a feat, which however overlaid with fable, probably possesses a greater substratum of truth than most heroic myths. In the first place this whole district, west of the Kathna, has been called from time immemorial Páruhár or Pandu- hars, as being the place where the Pándus wandered during their exile from the court of Delhi. Further, Kanauj is in the immediate vicinity of Balmiar Barkhár, and in A.D. 1030, Biruni, the Arabian geographer, wrote that Kanauj was as celebrated for the descendants of the Pándus as Muttra was for Krishna.* In other words, that Kanauj and its neighbourhood were the scenes of the Pándus' exploits as Muttra was of Krishna's. Nor is the tradition, which represents Barkhár as the capital of Bairát, an isolated one. It extends over all Oudh. The boundaries of the kingdom are still pointed out, and Hargám, a village 35 miles to the east, is admitted by its inhabitants to have been a mere postal or frontier town belonging to Rája Bairát who reigned at Barkhár. It is quite easy to understand that when the Brahmanical faith was introduced among the aboriginal tribes of the south and far east, its missionaries may have endeavoured to conciliate the people by announcing that the great Arian heroes had actually visited and sanctified the country in which they were now labouring. The fable would be safe from detection, but it is otherwise with Oudh. In a country lying near Delhi, and which has been at all times held and peopled by the descen- dants of the Pándus, it would be impossible to forge a claim for any place
 * The whole of this region, however, would appear to have been the land
 * Elliots'a llistorians, Yol I., 54,