90 
F. E. Pargiter —Ancient Countries in Eastern India. [No. 2, 
at evening (id., xlvi. 5-11; xlviii. 21-25; and xlix. 1-8). This agrees 
with the situation of the modern town Besarh, 27 miles north and a little 
east of Patna, which Cunningham has identified with Yai^ali (Arch. 
Surv. Repts., I. 55, and XYI. 6 and 34). 
No name appears to be given to this country and it plays a very 
small part in Sanskrit writings. Its kings claimed descent ’from 
Iksvaku, the founder of the Solar dynasty of Ayodhya, and called them¬ 
selves all Iksvakus (Ramay., Adi-k., xlviii. 13-20). In the Buddhist 
writings the country is called Vrji (Mahavamsa, early chapters; and 
Arch. Surv. Repts., XVI. 34), but this name is not in the Sanskrit 
dictionary nor have I met with it in any Sanskrit work. It played 
however an important part in early Buddhist history, for Buddha is 
said to have announced his approaching Nirvana at Va^all, and the 
second Buddhist Synod was held there. 
The Second Group of Five Nations. 
The Aqgas, Vaqgas, Kaliqgas, Pundras and Suhmas were habitual¬ 
ly classed together, and the first two, with the third often added, are 
generally found linked together, partly no doubt because they were 
neighbouring nations, but chiefly it seems because the names made a 
jingle. They are stated in the legends and genealogies to have been 
the descendants of five brothers of the same names, Ai;ga, Vaijga, 
Kaliqga, Pundra and Suhma, who were the sons of king Bali’s queen 
Sudesna by the rsi Dirgha-tamas or Dirgha-tapas. The accounts vary 
somewhat, but agree in this—that the rsi (who had been blind from 
his birth in consequence of a curse) was abandoned on a raft in the 
Ganges, was carried down the stream and was rescued by king Bali, 
and that Bali who wanted children commissioned his queen and the 
rsi to raise up offspring for him. The story is told with much circum¬ 
stantial detail, as if it was a well known event, and it is said these five 
sons were called “ Baleya-ksetra” and even a Baleya brahmans,” though 
Bali himself is called a Danava (Adi-p., civ. 4179-4221; Hari-V., xxxi. 
1682-97; Matsya Pur., xlviii. 23-78; and Visnu Pur., iv. 18). Bali is 
styled “king of the East,” and is shown in the genealogies as a descend¬ 
ant of Titiksu, king of the East; but Titiksu’s descent is uncertain for 
the Hari-Vam^a traces it from Puru king of Madhya or the Middle 
region (xxxi.), and the Visnu and Matsya Puranas from Anu, king of 
the East (e. g ., Matsya Pur., xlviii). 
Statements, like this one regarding these five brothers, that a cer¬ 
tain person was the progenitor of a certain people, occur frequently in 
Sanskrit genealogies and legends. They do not invite ready belief, and 
their meaning is a matter of uncertainty and difficulty, but looked at in 
