OF BHARATAVAKSA OK INDIA. 
109 
(^uWov, leaf, and to assign to it tlie meaning of leaf-clad. 
This expression, according to Sir Alexander, appropriately 
describes the Gronds, though parna, leaf, is used only in 
connection with the Sabaras, as he himself admits when 
referring to them. There is no objection to his explaining 
parna by " leaf-clad," though it can also signify "leaf -eating." 
In fact I prefer to a certain extent the former interpretation 
oiparna. But as the Pki/llUai are mentioned by Ptolemy as a 
and connected with the grand national epic, the Mahabharat, called 
Bheemnath, where there is a fountain, whose waters, in "past days, were of 
miraculous efficacy, and on whose margin is a temple to Siva, which attracts 
votaries from all quarters. The origin of this spot is referred to the adventures 
of the Pandua brothers, and their wanderings in exile amongst the forests of 
Berat, which tradition places in this very region, and its capital, Beratgurh, 
is held to be the more modern, but still interesting Dholka, included in Balla- 
khetra, and affording fresh and almost superabundant testimony to the 
veracity of the ancient chronicles of Mewar, which state Balabhi, Beratgurh, 
and Gurh-Gajni to have been the three chief cities, which owned their sway 
on their expulsion from the " land of the Sauras." The era of Balabhi, which 
is identical with the Gupta era, begins, according to the correct statement of 
Albiruni, in A.D. 3i§. The Balabhi grants are dated between the years 207 
and 447 of the Gupta era. (See Colonel Tod's Annals of Rajastlian, vol. I, 
801j and Travels in Western India, p. 213, and in the Indian Antiquary, vols. 
XI, pp. 241, 305—9 ; XV., pp. 189, 273, 335 ; XVI, p. 147; the researches 
of Dr. Hultzsch, Prof. Biihler, and Mr. Fleet). Balabhi was visited by Hiven 
Tsiang about 640 A.D. "On its destruction, in the middle of the eighth 
century, Anhulwarra became the metropolis, and this, as recorded, endured 
until the fourteenth, when the title of Bal-ca-rae became extinct." (Tod's 
Travels in Western India, p. 214.) 
Ptolemy mentions, VII, 1. 83 'Iirn-J/foupa, fia<rlKeiov BaA^SKoiipov,' for which 
WiUberg in his edition of Ptolemy substitutes fiaXepKnvpov. This is the 
passage to which Colonel Tod has referred above in his Travels on p. 149, and 
which is mentioned also in his Annals, vol. I, p. 213. Chr. Lassen speaks in 
his Indische Altertlmmskunde, vol. Ill, pp. 179, 185, and 186 of this passage, 
and places this Hippokura in the south : " Die Stadtmuss in der Nahe dea 
" jetzigen Mulkher gelegen haben . . Nur so viel lasst sich, ohne Besorgniss zu 
" irren, behaupten, dass dem Siripolemios die nordlichern, dem Baleokuros 
"die siidlichem Gebiete unterworfen waren." I conjecture that the word 
Balla is contained in Baleokurti as well as in Balerkuru, and if the latter is 
accepted as a reading, the r must indicate the title of Raja or Rao. 
About Balabhi consult " Notes on the Ancient City of Balabhipura," 
by Mr. B. A. R. Nicholson, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 
XIII, pp. 146-163. Read also the articles on this subject by the above men- 
tioned scholars, and those of the late Mr. J.Fergusson, and Professor R. Gopal 
Bhandarkar, in the Indian Antiquary, vols. I, III, IV, V, VI, VII, IX, XI, 
15 
