134 
ON THE OEIGIXAL INHABITA>'TS 
It is perliaps "worth, mentioning here that the Gaudian 
Koragas, of whom I shall speak in the next chapter, place 
on a hillock a stone, which they worship, while most of the 
oppressive giant, named Mani-mal, at a place in the Camatic, called 
I'hemer. Parvati, they say, under the name of Malsara, accompanied her 
lord, who appeared as a man clothed in green. .: he is generally represented 
■with. Farvad on horseback, attended frequently hy a dog. The giant Jfaai- 
mal made a most desperate defence against Kandeh Rao's attack, hut 'was 
at length slain: whereupon all the oppressed subjects of this giant paid 
adoration to Eandeh Rao, to the number, as the story goes, of seven Kroor of 
people, whence this Avatara i.s called Yehl-khut: Yehl, in a dialect of the 
Carnatic, being seven, and Khttt, or Koot, being a Jf/a/im^n pronunciation 
of Kroor (100,00,000), a hundred lakh, or ten millions." About Khapdoha 
consult also Rev. Stevenson's article " On the Modem Deities worshipped 
by the Hindus in the Dekkan" in thB Journal of the Roycd Aswtic Soc^iety, 
vol. YII. pp. 105-112. " The fii-st in order of the modem deities is Khan- 
doba, as he is usuall}'' termed by way of respect, or more properly Khande 
Rao. This name may have been given him from his breaking the hosts of 
his enemies, or from his wearing a particular kind of sword called in 
Marathi 'khanda.' His Sanskrit name is Mallari, which has been given him 
from the Daitya he vanquished. This name is corrupted into Mahhar. 
There is a legend relative to this deity called the Mallari Mahatmya, which 
professes to belong to the Kshetra Kanda of the Brahman da Purana. It 
lis a dialogue between Parvati and Mahadeva, the latter of whom merely 
repeats what Sanat Kumara narrated formerly to the sages engaged in per- 
forming austerities in the Naimisha forest. The scene of this romance is laid 
at a low range of hills called in Sanskrit the Mani Chuda (jewel cliff) and in 
Marathi, Khade Pathar (table-land above the cliff). The town of Jejuri, 
-which lies about thirty miles east from Poonah, is built close to its western 
extremity. At this place, according to the legend, certain Brahmans were 
linterrupted in their devotions by a Daitya called Malta, who -^-ith his brother 
Mani and a great army. . .beat and ill-used the Bralimans . . .In Sir John Mal- 
^ cohn's account of the Bhils, in the first volume of the Transact ioiK<: of the Royal 
Asiatic Society, mention is made of a powerful tribe of these freebooters, 
who derive tJieir origin from a place called Toran Malla. Their remotest 
ancestor, in the same account, is said to have murdered a Brahman, and 
carried ofi his daughter ; and one of their patriarchs. Kimda Eana, with his 
brothers, to have conquered and ruled over all the siuTounding country. By 
some one of that tribe probably the Brahmans were oppressed when they called 
in the aid of ssome other local prince called Khande Rao . . . The Champaka 
Shashti is directed to be held particularly sacred to !Mallari. It is the sixth 
dav of the increase of the moon in the month Jilargasirsha (Xovember- 
Dccemher). This is the great day accordingly at Jejuri, where Khandoba's 
principal temple is. It formerly stood on the top of the hill, but on being re- 
edified by lilalhar Rao Holkar, the first famous Maratha leader of that 
name, whose family god Khande Rao was, the site was changed to a level 
spot, but a little way from the base of the mountain. The approach is by a 
pretty broad flight of stune stairs . . . The third landing-iilace is the platform 
