1899.] 
UPPER COURSE OF THE YITASTA. 
97 
Legendary source of 
Vitasta. 
now borne by the Vitasta in its course through the Panjab, is wholly 
unknown to the genuine usage of Kasmlr. It is apparently of Muham¬ 
madan origin and has been brought to Kasmir only by Europeans and 
other foreigners. 1 
The river to which the name Vitasta or Vyath is properly applied, 
is first formed by the meeting of the several streams which drain the 
south-eastern portion of the Valley. This meeting takes place in the 
plain close to the present town of Anatnag or Islamabad. But sacred 
tradition has not failed to trace the holiest of Kasmlr rivers to a more 
specific source. 
An ancient legend, related at length in the Nilamata and reproduc¬ 
ed by the author of the Haracaritacintamani, 2 
represents the Vitasta as a manifestation of 
S'iva’s consort Parvatl. After Kasmir had 
been created, Siva at the request of Ka^yapa, prevailed upon the 
goddess to show herself in the land in the shape of a river, in order to 
purify its inhabitants from the sinful contact with the Pisacas. The 
goddess thereupon assumed the form of a river in the underworld, and 
asked her consort to make an opening by which she might come to the 
surface. This he did by striking the ground near the habitation of the 
Nllanaga with the point of his trident ( sulci ). Through the fissure 
thus made which measured one vitasti or span, the river gushed forth, 
receiving on account of this origin the name Vitasta. The spring-basin 
where the goddess first appeared was known by the several designations 
of Nilakunda , S'ulaghata (‘spear-thrust’) or simply Vitasta . 3 It is clear 
that the spring meant is the famous Nllanaga, near the village of 
Vernag in the Shahabad Pargana. It is a magnificent fountain which 
amply deserves the honour of being thus represented as the traditional 
source of the great river. 4 
The legend makes Parvatl-Vitasta subsequently disappear again 
from fear of defilement by the touch of sinful men. When brought to 
light a second time by Kasyapa’s prayer the goddess issued from the 
Naga of Pancahasta. In this locality we easily recognize the present 
his nomenclature directly or indirectly from the historians of Alexander, but from 
independent sources. Bidaspes, Zaradros, Bibasis, Sandabal, these all represent 
unsophisticated attempts to reproduce in sound the genuine Indian forms. The 
same cannot be said of the names given by Arrian, Pliny, etc. 
1 Alberum already knows the name Jailam; see above, § 14. STIvara when 
relating an expedition of Sultan Haidar Shah into tiro Panjab, sanskritizes this 
name into Jyalami ; see ii. 152. 
8 Sec Nilamata, 23S sqq.-, Haracar. xii. 2-34. 
3 See Nilamata, 1290; Haracar. xii. 17. 
4 Compare for the Nllanaga and its round spring-basin (kunda), Raj at, i, 28 note 
J. i. 13 
