AN" EXPLORATION IX THE EAE EAST. 403 



the local Sivite Mythology the Narbada is the maiden 

 Mykal-Kanya, daughter of the Mykal Mountain, from 

 whose brow she springs. Resistless in her divine 

 might, at her first birth she overflowed the earth in a 

 destructive flood, till, in answer to the prayers and 

 sacrifices of men, the Great God sent the Vindhya 

 Mountain and his seven stalwart sons^ to restrain her, 

 when she shrank into her present channel, leaving 

 behind her the Ganges and other rivers, as pools are 

 left by the receding tide. Hence the sanctity of the 

 Narbada is superior to that of all other rivers, though 

 the gods gave the preference for the first five thou- 

 sand years of the Kall-Yug to the Ganges. Twenty- 

 eight years only of this period now remain unexpired, 

 when the local Brahmans fully expect the Narbada to 

 surpass as a place of pilgrimage all other rivers of India. 

 As it is, the parent spring at Amarkantak, and many 

 places along its course, are places of great sanctity to 

 pilgrims from all parts of India ; and the help of the 

 railway, which is by no means scorned by the devout 

 Hindu (who likes to " boil his peas "), bids fair to realise 

 in some degree the prophecy of the Puranas. A little 

 to the north of the source of the Narbada rises the 

 Johilld, a stream which shortly joins the Sone, also born 

 in these hills, and flows north into the Ganges; while, 

 still only a few steps from these, another little stream, 

 the Arpd, bubbles forth, and shortly tumbles over the 

 sheer clifi" to the south, and mingles with the great 

 Mahanadi, which drains the plains of Chattis'garh into 

 the Bay of Bengal. From this height of 4,000 feet 

 the eye embraces a view of three-fourths of a circle, 



* Thence tlie name Sat-puici, applied to these highlands. Sat putrd 

 meaning literally the " Seven Sons." 



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