89 
1897.] F. E. Pargiter —Ancient Countries in Eastern India . 
probable tbe forest tribes were not acquainted with fire. They shun 
the bright life of the open country, and would have retreated terrified 
and silent into the depths of the forest; and it is noteworthy that no 
mention is made of any fighting before Mathava established himself 
there. 
It has pleased the brahmans in this passage to ascribe the improve¬ 
ment in the land to their sacrifices, but the passage implies, as Prof. 
Weber observes, that they did not venture across the Sada-nira till 
Mathava with his devouring fire had cleansed the ground before them. 
I would therefore suggest that we have here described how Mathava, 
with no doubt his comrades, burnt the forest down and began cultivating 
the land, and how the brahmans, finding the new tract developing into 
a good land, followed afterwards and soon appropriated the merit to 
themselves and their sacrifices. I venture to commend this explanation 
to those who know the country. 
Videha then comprised the country from Gorakhpur on the Rapti 
to Darbhanga, with Kosala on the west and Aqga on the east. On the 
north it approached the hills, and on the south it was bounded by the 
small kingdom of Va^ali. Its capital was called Mithila ((Janti-p., 
cccxxvii. 12233-8; and Ramay., Adi-k., xlix, 9-16) ; and this name often 
designated the country itself, especially in the Ramayana. The people 
were called Videlias, Vaidehakas and also Mithilas (Vana-p., ccliii. 
15243). Its kings traced their descent from Nimi (Ramay., Adi-k., 
lxxiii. 2-12) and were generally called Janaka, which seems to have 
been the ordinary royal title (Vana-p., cxxxiii. 10637). They were 
often highly educated (^anti-p., cccxxvii. 122J5-25; Kansitaki Up., iv. 
1 ; Brliad-Aran. Up., II. i. 1, and IV. i. and ii.). Cunningham says the 
capital was Janakpur, which is now a small town just within the Nepal 
border, north of where the Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga districts meet 
(Arch. Surv. Repts., XVI. 34, and map), but I have not met this name 
in Sanskrit works, and it is not in the dictionary. 
The Kingdom op Vai^alL 
Between Magadha and Videha lay a small kingdom on the north 
side of the Ganges, with its capital at Vai^ali, for Vi^vamitra, when 
taking the youthful Rama from the slaughter of Tadaka in the Shaba- 
bad district to Mithila, stopped at Vai^ali on the way. Their route 
appears from the Ramayana to have been as follows : crossing the R. 
f ona or Sone from the Shahabad district and travelling north-east they 
reached the Ganges near the site of the present city Patna (Adi-k., 
xxxvii. J-7) ; and then crossing the Ganges by boat, and travelling 
northwards towards Mithila the whole of one day, they reached Va^ali 
