124. N. N. Vasu—Nagaras and the Nagari-alphabet. [No. 2, 
for their native town, in order to distinguish it from the comparatively 
new city, Nagara, which the excommunicated -Vahya-nagaras founded 
and named in imitation of their mother-land.! 
The famous shrine of Hatakéevara is still existing in Bada-nagara ; 
and the Brahmanas of this locality still recite holy-texts (Canti-patha) 
for the welfare of their king the Gaikwar. Hven now, thousands of 
pilgrims resort to Hatakégvara from all parts of Western India. But 
strangely enough, most of the inhabitants of Bengal have not even 
heard its name. 
The above-mentioned temples and tirthas as described in the 
Nagara-khanda can even now be identified in Bada-nagara and its 
environments of 10 miles. The local river Sarasvati is held, by the 
natives, in the same veneration as the Ganges. 
The Nagara Brahmanas maintain that there was a time, when 
millions of pilgrims annually came to Hataké¢vara-ksétra from different 
parts of India. The attendants of its Pandas travelled all over India 
inducing people to visit this sacred place. Indeed many Nagara Brah- 
manas are, even now, met with in various parts of the Deccan. These 
Brahmanas still write all their sacred books in the Nagari characters. 
Even far away in Dravida and Karnata, where all the other natives 
use their provincial alphabets in writing, these Nagara-Brahmanas, 
though they have, in the course of centuries, lost their mother-tongue 
and adopted that of the surrounding people amongst whom they live, 
still adhere to their own tribal Nagari character, 
With respect to the Nagara Brahmanas at the outskirts of Vijaya- 
nagara and Anaguidi, Mr. Huddlestone Stokes states :—‘They appear 
originally to have come from the countries north-east of Nagara, and 
to have settled here under the Anagundi and Vijayanagar kings. They 
speak Kanarese only, but their books are in the Nagari and Balabadha? 
character.’ ® 
A careful perusal of what has been recorded above, leads one to 
decide that the Brahmanas brought by Trijata came to be known by 
the name of Nagara, their language and their alphabet by the 
name of Nagara or Nagari from their residingin the city of Nagara. 
That they have a peculiar connection with the Nagaraksara is well 
! We see in the Nagara-khanda that the excommunicated Campa-carman and - 
his companion set up the images of Nagarécvara and Nagaraditya on the right- 
bank of the river Sarasvati (Nagara-khanda, ch. 155). So it is not improbable that 
the Vahya-nagaras established here a town named Nagara. 
2 Balabodha is a modern form of the Nagari. (See Burnell, S. I. Palxography, 
p. 44.) 
3 Indian Antiquary, 1874, p. 280. 
