200 PINJOR 



1030. The old name, Panchpura — ^the town of 

 the five — is locally believed to be derived from 

 the Pandavas, the five brothers, heroes of the 

 Mahabharata. The legend says that these 

 wooded hills formed the background to the 

 closing scene of the great epic drama, and this 

 Eastern Iliad rings with a strange new reality 

 retold in this corner of the Himalayan foot-hiUs, 

 where time has little meaning and the charm of 

 leisure still survives the contact with the restless 

 West. Here in the old Mughal palace of Pinjor, 

 perched high above the splashing waterfalls, the 

 sound of some far-off train alone brings back the 

 passing of the centuries. 



The Mahabharata tells the famous story of 

 the contest between the sons of Dhritarashtra 

 and of his brother Pandu for the right to rule 

 over the northern part of India. The cousins 

 had quarrelled, and a game of dice was to bind 

 the losers to relinquish their share of the kingdom. 

 The Pandavas, sons of Pandu, lost. It had been 

 agreed, though, that if the losers passed twelve 

 years in the forests, and another so disguised as 

 to escape detection, they should then be free to 

 come back and claim half the kingdom as their 

 share. The Pandavas kept their promise ; but 



