AN EXPLORATION IN THE FAE EAST 325 



leaving behind ter 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 thousand 

 years of the Kali-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 pUgrimage all other rivers of India. As it is, the parent 

 spring at Ainarkantak, 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 hkes to " boil his 

 peas "), bids fair to reaUse in some degree the prophecy of 

 the Puranas. A little to the north of the source of the 

 Narbada rises the Johilla, 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 Axpa, bubbles forth, and shortly tumbles over 

 the sheer clifE 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 4000 feet the eye 

 embraces a view of three-fourths of a circle, uninterrupted 

 by anything but the blue haze of distance which limits the 

 vision. Far below to the south, lying like a chessboard, is 

 the open cultivated plain of Chattis'garh, stretching out 

 to the uttermost range of vision. To the east and north, 

 2000 feet below, appears a flat sea of greenery, broken here 

 and there by an isolated peak that appears to reach the 

 level of the observer. In the faint distance beyond rises 

 another wall of rock, visible only on a clear day as a faint 

 violet-coloured shade across the sky. The green plain 

 is a vast forest of sal, unbroken by tillage, and scarcely 

 inhabited by man, and the rocky rampart beyond is the 

 buttress of another table-land called Sirgiija, the land 

 of the K61 aborigines, and beyond the Hmits of our province. 

 My mission for the succeeding six months was to explore 

 this vast region of sal forest, lying to the north and east 

 of Amarkantak, and stretching far beyond and to the 

 south of the plain of Chattis'garh, in the semi-independent 

 country called the Garhjat States. 



