96 
ON THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS 
nification. From wliat lias been already stated, the origin 
of this expression is to be looked for in the West, though no 
doubt the subsequent preponderance of the Eastern Grauda 
kings made this fact fall into oblivion. Ku&dmba, a grand- 
son of Balakasva and son of Kusa, is the reputed founder 
of the well-known town Kausambi, south of Ayodhya and 
north-west of the modern Allahabad, The Hitopadesa 
places it in the Gauda country.^^ Similarly is the city 
Sravasti described as situated in Gauda, while it belongs to 
Kosala, likewise a part of Oudh.'^ These and many more 
examples can be quoted to show that the term Gaiida does 
not apply only to the distant East. Moreover, the tradition 
which Colebrooke has preserved assigns to the Grauda-Brah- 
mans a western home and connects their origin with the wars 
of the Pandavas. I am inclined to attach to this legend 
some value, though I quite admit that we possess no records 
to prove its authenticity. If deserving notice, we ought to 
ascribe to this division a comparatively early date, while 
Janmeyaj, son of Parikshit, son of Abhemanyu, son of Arjun, brother of 
Yudhishthir, and tlie third king of India of the family of Pandu, removed 
all the Brahmans from Gaur and settled them to the west of the G-angea 
beyond Hastinapoor, -where their descendants still remain." On pp. 15-1- 
155, however, he remarks : The few Brahmans of the Gaur nation, that are 
now in Bengal, have avowedly come very recently from the west of India, 
and the same is the case with almost all the tribes of Sudras, who claim to 
be of the Gaur nation, none of whom, the Vaishnavs excepted, are now to 
be found in Gaur. I therefore concluded, that some place called Gaur in the 
vicinity of Agra or Delhi, was the original country of this nation. I have, 
however, since met with some well-iuformed Brahmans of this nation who 
allege, that the Gaur of Bengal is their original place of settlement, but 
that the whole of them were removed from thence by Janmeyaj, and placed 
near Hastinapoor. . . The Sudras, however, of Gaur, having as well as the 
Brahmans come from the west of India, renders this emigration in the time 
of Janmeyaj rather doubtful." 
I have prove! above the existence of a western Gauda (Gaur.) 
Eead about Oaitr, also ibid,-m, vol. Ill, pp. (5S-80. 
"Compare Rdnuhjana, I, Si, 6; Pdnini, IV, 2, 6S ; nitopad(sa in 
Mitralabha : Asti GaudavisayS (Gaudadese, Gaudiyfi) Kausambi nama 
nagarl. 
" Compaie Vis/ipupu)d{ui, vol. Ill, p, 2(33, and above p. 91 u. 11. 
