90 H. Beveridge —The Antiquities of Bag lira. [No 1, 
By the Hindus Bagura is popularly identified with the country of king 
Virat, where the five Pandavas remained hidden for a year. Bagura, they 
tell us, was the Dakshina Go-grih or southern cow-house (Scottice byre) of 
king Virat, the northern one being in Ghoraghat, i. e., Aswasala. Bhim, 
they say, disguised himself as Yirat’s herdsman, and built the rampart known 
as Bhim’s Jangal to make a pen for the cattle. So say the Pandits, while the 
ryots improve the evidence got from this by pointing to the stone-pillar in 
the Badalgachhi thana and calling it Bhim’s pdnti, i. e ., Bhim’s ox-goad. 
Additional corroboration is sought from the fact that there are villages in 
Bagura, known by the names of Virat and Kichak (Virat’s brother-in-law). 
Unfortunately, however, names of places are more likely to be the offspring 
of traditions than to be evidence of their genuineness, and even if the village 
of Kichak be old, it more probably derives its name from the wandering 
gypsies and robbers of the last century who were called Kichaks, than from 
the villain of the Mahabharat. 
A more convincing indication of the antiquity of Bagura was obtained 
only last year when a tank was being dug in the middle of the town. The 
tank had been excavated to a considerable depth, when the workmen came 
on the top of a brick well. The well is still standing in the tank and may 
be seen by the curious. It is circular in form and solidly built with large, 
thin bricks which are so broad in proportion to their length as to be nearly 
square. The mode of building seems peculiar, for the bricks are arranged in 
layers which are alternately composed of flat and perpendicular bricks. 
The top now visible appears to me to be the real top of the well, and it 
is some fifteen feet below the present surface of the country. The 
remarkable thing is that the earth is not sand or chur-earth, but is 
solid, red soil. How the well came to be where it is, I cannot explain; 
but if the fifteen feet of earth were really gradually deposited above it, then 
the well must be many centuries old. Close to this tank, and only separated 
by the public road, there is an interesting proof of the antiquity of the soil 
in a magnificent Banyan tree. It is, I think, the finest tree I have seen next 
to that in the Botanical Gardens at Calcutta, and it is much more attract¬ 
ive than the latter, because it is still in the heyday of its career of 
beneficence. The Bagura market is held under it and twice a week hundreds 
of men and cattle are sheltered by it from the sun and rain. 
The real glory of Bagura perhaps is the Badalgachhi pillar which bears 
an inscription of the Pal Bajas, and which has been described by Sir 
Charles Wilkins and more recently by a native gentleman. I have never 
seen this pillar, and I hear that it is now so shrouded in jungle as to 
be almost inaccessible. As it is situated in the Government Estate of 
Jaipur, it is to be hoped that the authorities will look after its preservation. 
It is locally known as Bhim’s pdnti or ox-goad. 
