36. Notes on Ancient Anga or the District of Bhagalpur 



By Nundolal Dey. 



CHAPTER I. 

 The Country of Anga. 



Anga is one of the most ancient countries of Northern 



India. The people who lived in it are 

 Derivation of the mentioned in the Atharva Veda 1 by the 



name of Anga. r a • j -x. • n 1 



name of Angas, and it is well known 

 that a country was then generally called after the name of 

 the tribe which dwelt in it. The Angas are mentioned there 

 along with the Magadhas, and they appear to have been the 

 most eastern nation known when the Atharva Samhlta was 

 composed. Both the Angas and the Magadhas have been 

 spoken of there in terms of contempt. 



It is, however, related in the Ramayana that Madana, 

 the god of Love, incurred the displeasure of Mahadeva. He 

 fled from the hermitage of the latter to escape his consuming 

 anger, and the region where " he cast off his body (Anga) '\ or 

 rather it was reduced to ashes, has since been known by the 

 name of Anga, and the god of Love has since been called 

 by the name of " Ananga " (without body).' 2 Since that event 

 the hermitage of Mahadeva also has been known by the name 

 of Kama£rama 3 or the hermitage of Kama: the Raghuvamsa 

 likewise calls this place by the name of Madana-tapo vana.* The 

 Ramayana further relates that the hermitage of Mahadeva was 

 situated at the junction of the river Saraju and the Ganges, 

 and Bi&vainitra Rsi's hermitage was situated on the southern 

 side of the river Ganges just in front of the confluence. 6 

 Local tradition points out to Karon (KamaSrama) as the place 

 where Mahadeva performed asceticism and destroyed Madana 

 with the fire of his third eye. Karon is eight miles to the 



* Atharva-samhita , v, 22, 14. 



< t 



We to Gandharis, Mujavans, to Aiigas and to Magadhas 

 Hand over fever as it were a servant and a thing of price 



»j 



Translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith in his Hymns of the Atharva 



Veda. 



* Ramayana, Bala-Kanda, ch. 23. 



8 Ibid., ch. 23, v, 22. 



* Raghuvariisa, xi, 13. 



* Ram., i, 28, 29. 



