1869.] The District of Liididna. 8< 



so extensive, that for centuries past they have supplied Ludiana 

 with much of its building material. People say, that the masonry 

 work is mostly upside down, the smooth and marked side of 

 the bricks which one would expect to find uppermost, being on 

 the contrary downwards. This may perhaps indicate that Sunet 

 was overthrown by some sudden convulsion of nature, perchance 

 an earthquake, and the popular traditions are in accordance 

 with this supposition. I have been unable to trace the authentic 

 history of Sunet, but the story of its fall, a mixture of Hindu and 

 Muhammadan fable is as follows : There was once a king at Sunet, 

 named Raja, Mauj Gend or Panwar, who treated his subjects with 

 great violence and cruelty. This king was afflicted with an ulcer, 

 and was told that human flesh would do it good. So an order went 

 forth to bring him a human being, as occasion required, from each 

 household. 



One clay it so happened, that it was the turn of a brahman widow, 

 who had an only child, ten years of age. The myrmidons of the 

 tyrant came to carry off the child, when its mother's tears moved 

 the sympathy of a holy man, Shah Qutb, by name. He, after a vain 

 attempt to turn away the soldiers, swore that they should never see 

 their homes again, and so it happened. They turned towards Sunet, 

 but both Sunet and its raja, had disappeared from the face of the 

 earth. 



Next to Sifnet, the town of most undoubted antiquity is Machi- 

 wara. There is a local tradition that a woman named Machodri, the 

 grandmother of the Pandavas, founded it. I do not find any mention 

 of Machodri in Talboys Wheeler's book. The paternal grandmother 

 of the Pandavas was a daughter of the Raja of Kasi. Of the mater- 

 nal grandmother nothing is said. The mother bore the name of 

 Madri. Of her, Talboys Wheeler writes — 



"Madra is the ancient name for Bhootan, and there seems some 

 reason for believing that Madri belonged to one of the mountain 

 tribes occupying the southern slopes of the Himalayas, but probably 

 much further to the westward than the country of Bhootan." This 

 is not inconsistent with the story that Machiwara may have been 

 founded by some ancestor of the Pandavas ; but these myths are too 

 vague and various to be of any historical use. 



