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
-
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.
-
