224 Of two Edicts bestowing Land. [No. 3. 



minant passion was polity ; discomfifcer of the bands of his foes ; 

 dissipating the gloom produced by the hostile presence of haughty 

 valorous warriors ; and through whose most august grandeur was 

 assuaged every hardship of the denizens of the unrivalled realm of 

 Gadhipura* the famous, which he had acquired by the might of his 

 arm : 



5. Who, having repaired, as a protector to the religious re- 

 sorts at KaVi,f Kus'ika,J North Kos'ala,§ and Indrasthana,|| in 

 bestowing, time after time, his weight in gold^[ on the twice- 



* Gadhipura is the same as Kanyakubja, as will be seen hereafter. 



f Kas'i generally intends the city of Benares ; but it also designated the neigh- 

 bouring country. There is ground to believe that, at one time, while this name 

 was more particularly applied to the capital, Varanasi was employed, perhaps ex- 

 clusively, to distinguish the province. See this Journal, for 1848, Part I., p. 71. 



But a custom, the reverse of this, seems to have obtained, at a certain period. 

 See the Kalpa-druma-JcaliJcd, by Lakshmi Vallabha, ad finem. This work is a 

 commentary on the Kalpa-sutra of the Jainas. 



The word varanasi, said to occur in the Atharva-veda, is explained in the Jd~ 

 bdla Upanishad, to be the same with the sushumna, or coronal artery ; and varana 

 and asi are named in defiance of grammar, as its constituents. The first of these 

 is there asserted to be a synonyme of ping aid ; the second, of idd ; two tubular 

 vessels, according to the reveries of the Yoga. 



In the Kds'i-khanda, which rejects this derivation, it is insisted that the Athar- 

 va-veda means Benares ; its Sanskrit form being analysed into the names of the 

 two streams which skirt the city near its eastern and western extremities. 



% Of Kus'ika it has been stated that it signifies the river Kaus'aki — recte, 

 Kaus'iki. See As. Res., Vol. XV., p. 4-5-1. But this is very questionable. A 

 place near some sacred stream is probably here meant, rather than the stream itself. 



§ North Kos'ala is supposed to be the old denomination for the vicinity of 

 Ayodhya. See the Translation of the Vishnu-pur ana, p. 190, foot-note 79 ; and 

 Lassen's Indische Alterthumskunde, Vol. I., pp. 128 and 129. 



|| Indrasthana, it is obvious to surmise, is auother name for Indraprastha, or 

 ancient Delhi. 



% According to the Matsya-purdna, he who gives away his weight in gold will 

 abide in the heaven of Indra during the periods of all the Manus. Afterwards he 

 reaches the city of Vishnu ; and, when his hoard of merit is exhausted, he is born 

 a universal monarch on earth. The Ayni-purdna adds that, in his renewed human 

 condition he will be free from all disease. 



Fitting objects to be given away in quantities equal to one's weight are, any of 

 t.he metals, precious stones, several sorts of grain, various fruits, betel, saccharine 



