Page:The Indian Antiquary Vol 1.pdf/159

 SKETCHES OF

May 3, 1872.]

MATHURA.

133

SKETCHES OF MATHURA. By F. S. GROWSE, M. A., OXON, B.C.S. II.-THE BAN-JATRA.

HOUGH the number of bans is invariably stated as twelve, and of upabans as twenty

four, there is often considerable difference in the specification, and probably few of the local pan dits, if required to enumerate either group off hand, would be able to complete the total with out some recourse to guess work. A little Hindi manual for the guidance of pilgrims has been published at M at hur à, and is considered to embody the most authentic traditions on the subject. The compiler, however great his local knowledge and priestly reputation, has certainly no pretensions to accuracy of scholarship. His attempts at etymology are as a rule absolutely grotesque ; as for example in the two sufficiently obvious names Khaira and Shergarh, the one of

most powerful monarch of the time, the great R a ma, then reigning at A y o dhyā. The god-like hero disdained the easy victory for

himself, but sent his youngest brother Sa trugh n a to Madhu-vana, who vanquished and slew the monster, hewed down the wood

in which he had trusted for defence, and on its site founded the city of Madhu-puri. This is uniformly regarded by native scholars as merely another name for Math ur à, re gardless of the fact that the forest is several miles from the river, while M at hur à has always, from the earliest period, been described as situate on its immediate bank. The confusion

between the two places runs apparently through the whole of classical Sanskrit literature ; as

which he derives from khedma, “to drive cattle,”

for example in the Harivans'a, (canto) 95, where

and the other, still more preposterously, from sihara, “a marriage wreath.’ The list which he gives is as follows, his faulty orthography in

we find the city founded by S at rugh n a dis

Some of the words being corrected :The 12 Bans: Madhu-ban; Tāl-ban ; Kumud

tinctly called, not Madhu-puri, but Mathur à, which, it is said, B him a subsequently annexed, B him a's own original capital being, according to this isolated legend, Go bar d h a n.

ban ; Bahulā-ban ; Kām-ban ; Khadira-ban ; Brindå-ban ; Bhadra-ban ; Bhāndir-ban ; Bel ban; Loha-ban ; and Mahā-ban. The 24 Upabans: Gokul, Gobardhan, Barsāna, Nand-gānw, Sanket, Paramadra, Aring, Sessãi, Māt, Uncha-gānw, Khel-ban, Sri-kund, Gand

Ś a trugh no La v an a m hatwā chichchheda

harv-ban, Parsoli, Bilchhu, Bachh-ban, Adi

cha

badri, Karhela, Ajnokh, Pisáyo, Kokila-ban, Dadhi-gānw, Kot-ban and Räval.

Sumiträ-sutayos chaiva präptayor Vaishnavam

This list bears internal evidence of some anti

Bhimeneyam puri tena rājya-sambandha-kāranāt Svavanśe sthāpitä púrvam svayam-adhyāsità

quity in its want of close correspondence with existing facts; since some of the places, though retaining their traditionary repute, have now nothing that can be dignified with the name either of wood or grove: while others are known

sa Madhor vanam

Tasmin Madhu-vane sthäne purim cha Ma thurām imām

Nivesayāmāsavibhuh Sumitrā-mandi-varddhanah. Paryāye chaiva Râmasya Bharatasya tathaiva

padam

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tathâ.

But there are many very clear indications that the writer of the Harivans'a was a com

only by the villagers in the immediate neigh bourhood, and have been supplanted in popular

plete stranger to the country of Braj, the scene of his poem ; for almost all the topogra phical descriptions are utterly irreconcileable

estimation by rival sites of more easy access or

with facts. Thus he states that K r is h m a and

greater natural attractions.

B a lar am a were brought up at a spot select ed by N and a on the bank of the Jam u n a near the hill of Go bar d h a n (canto 61.) Now

But first to take

in order the twelve B an s :—

Madh u-b an is situate in a village, now called M a holi, some 4 or 5 miles to the south

Go bar d h a n is some 15 miles from the river,

west of Mathurá. This forest, according to the

and the neighbourhood of Gokul and Ma

Purānas, was the stronghold of the

giant

h a b a n, which all other written authorities

Madhu, and from him derived its name. On his decease it passed to his son Law an a, who,

to have been the scene of Krish na’s infancy,

inflamed with the lust of universal conquest, pre
 * umed to send an insolent challenge to the

and on the other side

and also ancient tradition agree in declaring is several miles further distant from the ridge of

the

Jam u nã.

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