16 
[No. 1, 
The Kaimur Range.—By Ciiaxdtca.se kttara Baxxitc.it, 
Deputy Magistrate, Bongong. 
General features .—The Kaimur Range is a spur of the clouble-ricigeil 
Vindhya. It is the more easterly of the three so called Table-lands of Cen¬ 
tral India, each of which has for its floor the three great varieties of the 
gray, the red, and the yellowish sandstones. It shoots out from the 
District of Mirzapur in the “ inhospitable regions” of which the goddess 
Baran has selected one of her mountain abodes under the name of Vindhya¬ 
vashim. From this region the range stretches eastwards in a lofty plateau, 
forming a belt of upwards of 130 miles, with an average breadth of 35. 
The mighty Sona, pent up on both banks by high ridges, flows along the 
foot of this Table-land until touching almost the base of the northern arm 
under the summit of Rohtas, takes then a turn, and cuts a north-easterly 
course through the open plains of South Bihar. The mountain chain, 
however, bends northward sending out smaller spurs, until reaching Sahasram, 
it may be said to terminate with the dome of the Chandan Sayyid mount. 
From this point the chain relapses gradually into the plain, re-appearing 
once only fourteen miles off in two small blue knolls at Nokha. 
Although occupying a vast extent of country whose breadth across the 
plateau exceeds at places forty miles, hardly any of its peaks attains the 
height of 2,200 feet. # Its small elevation reminds one of the curse of 
Vindhya to which the Hindu mythological accounts often allude. “ Vindhya, 
“ having prostrated before his spiritual guide Agra Sila, still remains in that 
“ posture by the command of the holy personage. This humiliation is the 
“ punishment for his presumption in emulating the lofty heights of the 
“ Himalaya and the Meru”. According to this legend Vindhya has one foot 
at Chanar, the true name of that fortress being “ Charanadri,” and another 
at Gaya. The vulgar inconsistently suppose that the head of the prostrate 
mountain is near the Temple of Vindhyavashim. 
The ancient name of the country along which this chain extends was 
Kaira Des, from the Daitya of that name known to tradition as its 
earliest king. The range was probably known as the Kairo Mali, corrupted 
to Kaimur. The Puranas and the natives however still call it the Vindhya 
Mali, whose summit are crowned with the shrines of the goddess Barani under 
different names, Vindhyavashim being the foremost and more widely known 
than the rest. Vindhyavashim was the offspring of Yasoda, being supposed 
to be the same child which was made over by Vasudeva to Raja Kansaf the 
* Colebrooke’s journey to Nagpur. 
t ‘ For Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.’ St. Matthew, Chap. II. 
The similarity of the story was pointed out by Sir William Jones. 
