MARCH, 1873.]

91

ASIATIC SOCIETIES.

circles. Mothers come here for their purification on the sixth day after child-birth—chhathi-pitja —and it is visited by enormous crowds of people for several days about the anniversary of Krishna's birth in the

knowledge ; and his reply was that, in the course of all his reading, he had never met with Brindăban under any other name than that which it now bears.

month of Bhādon.

with Mahāban, it was necessary to notice General Cunningham's counter-theory and to condemn it as unsound ; ordinarily the accuracy of his research and the soundness of his judgment are entitled to the

A representation of the infant

god's cradle is displayed to view, with his foster mother's churn and other domestic articles.

The

place being regarded not exactly as a temple, but as Nanda and Jasodá's actual dwelling-house, Europeans are allowed to walk about in it with perfect freedom. Considering the size, the antiquity, the artistic ex cellence, the exceptional archaeological interest, the celebrity amongst natives, and the close proximity to Mathurá of this building, it is perfectly marvel lous that it found no mention whatever in the ar

chaeological abstract prepared in every district by orders of Government a few years ago, nor even in the costly work compiled by Lieutenant Cole, the Superintendent of the Archaeological Survey, which professes to illustrate the architectural antiquities of Mathura and its neighbourhood.

In order to establish the identification of Clisobora

highest respect.

“The glories of Mahāban are told in a special (in terpolated) section of the Brâhimanda Purāna, called the Brihad-vana Mahātmya. In this, its tirthas, or holy places, are reckoned to be twenty-one in num ber as follows:–

Eka-vinsati-tir thena yuktam bhūrigundinvitam. Yamal-drjuna punyatamam, Nanda-kupam ta thaira cha,

Chinta-harana Brahmāndam, kundam Sárasratam Saraswati sili tatra,

Kurna-kāpam,

tathâ, Vishnu-kunda-samanvitam,

Krishna-kundam,

“Let into the outer wall of the Nand Bhavan is a

Ramanam-ramana-sthānam,

small figure of Buddha; and it is said that when ever foundations are sunk within the precincts of the fort, many fragments of sculpture—of Buddhist

character, it may be presumed—have been brought to light: but hitherto they have always been buried again, or broken up as building materials. Doubt

Gopa-kºpan

tathaira cha, Ndrada-sthānam era cha,

Pútand-patana sthānam, Trindrarttikhyapātanam, Nanda-harmyam, Nanda-geham, Ghatam Ra mana-samjnakam,

Mathuránáthodbhavam-kshetram punyam papa prandsanam,

less,

Mahāban was the site of some of those

Buddhist monasteries which the Chinese pilgrim Fa Hian distinctly states existed in his time on both sides of the river. And further, whatever may be the exact Indian word concealed under the form

Janma-sthānam tu Sheshasya, jananam Yoga mayaya.” In connection with this paper it may be mentioned that Mr. Growse has addressed the Government of

Klisoboras, or Clisobora, given by Arrian and Pliny as the name of the town between which and Mathurá

the Jamunā ſlowed—4 innis Jomanes in Gangen per Palibothros decur, it inter oppida Methora et Cliso bora—Pliny. Hist. Nat, vi, 22—it may be concluded with certainty that Mahāban is the site intended. Its other literary names are Brihad-vana, Brihad aranya, Gokula, and Nanda-gráma ; and no ºne of these, it is true, in the slightest resembles the word Clisobora, which would seem rather to be a corrup tion of some compound in which Krishna was the first element; possibly some epithet or descriptive

title taken by the foreign traveller for the ordinary proper name. General Cunningham in his ‘Ancient Geography’ identifies Clisobora (read in one MS.

the North-West Provinces, representing that the des truction of the temple of Govind Deva would be a national and irreparable loss, which immediate steps for its preservation can alone avert. “The Táj at Agra has been declared national property as the finest specimen of Juhammadan architecture; and it is in every way highly desirable that the same course should be followed with reference to this building as the recognized master-piece of Hindu architecture.” He accordingly suggests “that the Government ad dress the Mahārājá of Jayptir, representing the exi

gency of the case, and enquiring whether he is pre pared himself to undertake the repair of the building, or whether he will cede it to the State as national pro

earlier name of the place was Kālikavartta.' Upon

perty. The latter plan would be far preferable : and it is probable that if the Mahārājá himself undertook the repairs, he would not only repair but also re novate, and further again devote it to religious ser vice, by which means it would become closed to Eu ropeans. As regards the temple of Harideva at Go bardhan the remedy is simpler. One compartment of the roof still remains as a guide for restoring the re mainder, nor are funds wanting. The village of Bha gosa is a permanent endowment, and it has been de

this latter point a reference has been made to the

cided in the Civil Court that the revenue must be

great Brindăban Pandit, Swāmi Rangáchári, who, if any ºne, might be expected to speak with positive

expended strictly on religious uses, and cannot be appropriated by the shareholders as private income.

as Cyrisoborka) with Brindaban, assuming that Ká likavartta, or “Kālika's Whirlpool,' was an earlier name of the town, in allusion to Krishna's combat

with the serpent Kālika.

But in the first place, the

Jamunā does not flow between Mathurá and Brindå

ban, seeing that both are on the same bank; secondly, the ordinary name of the great serpent is not Kālika, but Käliya ; and thirdly, it does not appear upon what authority it is so boldly stated that “ the

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