$6 ESSAY ON 



lation Bhoja ; and Bala-Ra'ma placed his family 

 in the country about Raja-mahl: these were of course 

 Ba'lt-putras : but they could not be the Ba'li-pu- 

 TRAS, or Pa'li-bothri kings, in the time of Ale- 

 ander, and his successors. AVe are informed, in the 

 Bhagavata, that king Maha'-Nanda assumed the 

 title of Bali, and Maha'-bali : consequently his 

 offspring, who ruled after him, for a long time, were 

 Bali-putras : the kingdom o^ Magad ha was called 

 the kingdom of Bali, Pali, and Poli: the dialect of 

 that country is, as before observed, indifferently called 

 Bali, Pali, and 3Iagacrhi in Ceylon and tlie Burman 

 Empire, according to Captain Mahony, Mr. 

 JoiNviLLE, and Mr. Buchanan. The city, in which 

 the Bali or Pa'li-putras resided, was of cojirse 

 denominated from them. Bali-putra, or Pali-putra ; 

 and by the Greeks Pali-bothra, and, in the Peiitin- 

 gerian Tables, Pali-potra. Their patrimonial estate 

 was called Paliputra-waii'dalam, the circle, or country 

 of the Pali-putras. This simple and obvious deno- 

 mination, was strangely disfigured by Ptolemy, who 

 calls the city, Pali-bothiYi of the Mandalas ; instead 

 of saying that it was in the Mandala^ or country of 

 the Pdlibothras, or Bali-piitras. 



Tradition says, that Maha'-bali built a country 

 seat, on the banks of the Soa)ic ; round which a small 

 town was soon formed, and called Ma'ha-ba'li-pura, 

 (or Mawbellypoor in Major Rennell's Atlas). There 

 I was looking, at first, for Bali-putra, or Palibothra. 

 Patiia, or at least a town called Cusuma-pia^i, was 

 built, according to the Brahmmda, by king Udasi, 

 grand father to Ma'ha-bali, about 450 B. C. It was 

 then called Cu'sumd-puii, or the flowery city, and 

 Padm&-rati, or the city of the Lotos. Tradition says, 

 that the old site of this city was atPhulwdri, which, 

 in the spoken dialects, signifies the same with Cusumd- 

 purt : but, the Gauges having altered its course, 

 the city was gradually removed from Phulwdri. 



