1899.] 
LOWER COURSE OF THE VITASTA. 
113 
We should have some difficulty in understanding the position 
chosen for a town which was intended to be a place of importance if we 
did not know the great change effected in the course of the river by the 
subsequent regulation of Avantivarman. In King Jayapida’s time one 
of the main branches of the Vitasta probably followed the line of the 
Nor in this neighbourhood. The island of And^rkoth which forms a 
small alluvial plateau, raised perhaps artificially in parts, was then a 
convenient site. This is no longer the case since the liver flows to the east 
of And^rkoth and at a considerable distance. We can safely attribute to 
this change the fact that Jayapura like the similarly situated Pari- 
liasapura had fallen into insignificance already before Kalhana’s time. 
Close to Sambal the river passes the foot of an isolated hill known 
as AhHyung , rising about a thousand feet above the plain. Under its 
shelter on the north is the small lake of Manasbal which is mentioned by 
the name of Manasa[saras ] in the Nilamata and by Jonaraja. 1 2 * It is about 
two miles long, and occupying a rock-basin is deeper than the other 
lakes of the Kasmir plains. It is connected with the river by a short 
channel and partially fed by an irrigation canal carried into it from the 
Sind River. 8 Its ancient name is derived from the sacred lake on 
Kailasa, famous in the Puranas and Epics and usually located in the 
Mansarovar of the Tibetan highlands. 
A short distance lower down the villages of Uts^kund a l and Mar^- 
kund a l already referred to above, are passed on the left bank. There 
are various indications which make it probable that in old times the 
Volur lake reached much closer to these villages than it does at present. 
Kalhana’s reference seems to indicate that these villages enclosed by 
circular dykes were actually reclaimed from the lake, and Jonaraja 
still places them on the very shore of the lake. 8 In the same way 
S'rivara speaking of the villages stretching from Samudrakota, 4 * the 
present Sud a rkoth, to the vicinity of Dvarika, near And^rkoth, seems 
to place them along the shore of the Volur. 
A glance at the map shows that the land on the left bank of the 
river below the ‘ Kundala’ villages projects like a peninsula into the lake. 
1 As Jonaraja , 864 sq., makes the ancient name quite certain, the latter could 
have safely been shown on the map. In some passages of the Nilamata and 
Mahatmyas it might be doubted whether this lake or the Uttaramanasa on Mount 
Haramukh is intended; see however NUamata, 1338, where the Manasa lake is 
mentioned after the Yitastasindhusamgama. 
2 The construction of this canal is ascribed by Jonaraja, 864 sq ., to Zainu-1- 
‘abidin. 
2 See Itajat. v. 120, and Jonar. 1230, (Bo, ed.j. 
4 See Srlv. i. 400 sq, 
J. i. 15 
