1876.] 



at Delhi three thousand years ago. 



371 



Pandava brothers were sent away to Varanavrata, modern Allahabad, where, 

 it was thought, they would be beyond the reach of their intriguing 'cousins'. 

 But those who interested themselves in the welfare of the Pandavas were 

 doomed to disappointment. The palace, which the five brothers and their 

 mother occupied at Varanavrata, was, one night, set on fire, and they had to 

 fly for life, and, for some time after, to keep themselves secreted in jungle 

 and unfrequented places, or roam about as beggars. At last they effected 

 an alliance with the powerful king Drupada of Panchala (modern Kanauj), 

 whose daughter they married at a Sayahvara, and through his influence and 

 that of their cousin-german Krishna, obtained a small tract of land for their 

 share with the town of Indraprastha for their capital. Here they establish- 

 ed themselves, and laid the foundation of what afterwards became a mighty 

 empire. 



Close by Indraprastha, there happened to be a large forest,* which the 

 Pandavas burnt down and cleared, and by dint of perseverance, and gradual 

 encroachment on the possessions of their less energetic neighbours, raised 

 their little tract of land to the rank and position of a respectable principality. 

 Alliances with some of the aboriginal races also helped them to rise in power ; 

 and the extension of their possessions towards the west and the south-west 

 where they met with little opposition, soon enabled them to assume a high 

 position among the crowned heads of India. A magnificent palace, called a 

 SaUd or ' audience chamber', was next built in the capital, and it proved to 

 be the finest work of art that had ever been produced in this country. A 

 Titan (Danava) was its architect, and it was enriched with the most 



* The existence of this forest has suggested to Mr. Wheeler the idea of Delhi, or 

 the country about it, having been an outpost of the Aryans in India at the time of the 

 Pandavas, and the whole of his criticisms on the Mahabharata is based upon this major. 

 That there were many forests in the country three thousand years ago, is a truism 

 which none can venture to question, but there is no valid reason to suppose that the 

 Khandava forest was the ultima thule of the Aryans at the time in question. The line of 

 argument which has brought the learned author to this conclusion, could be appealed to 

 with great effect, to show that the jungle of Chataura near Jagadispur in which the muti- 

 neers under Kumar Singh, found a shelter, was the outpost of the English raj in 1858. 

 To save his position, the author has been obliged to denounce the whole of the geo- 

 graphy of the Mahabharata as after thoughts. The poet says that Bhishma got into his 

 chariot, went to Kasi, and brought the three daughters of the king of that place, as 

 brides for his younger brother, and the critic exclaims, " Kasi is 500 miles from Hastina- 

 pur," and as no one could make the journey so easily and without attendants, the place 

 meant must be a village in the neighbourhood of Hastinapura ; as if it was absolutely 

 necessary for a poet to give in detail the number of the attendants, the places where 

 they halted, and the stages they travelled over. Chand, in the 12th century, with 

 nearly as much laconic brevity, makes his hero Prithviraj travel to Kanauj from Delhi 

 on a like mission, and it was crowned with equal success. It is not likely that any 

 historian will question the truth of the elopement of the Princess of Kanauj. 





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MM 



