20 Chandrasekhara Banurji —The Kaimur Range. [No. 1, 
those of the holy saint. The common story about it is, that in the 
illustrious race of the sun, there lived a king by the name of Trinsankhu, 
who, among other horrid sins, was guilty of incest and of the murder of 
a Brahman. To wash away the taint it was necessary to collect the waters 
of all the sacred pools and streams in the world. From the holy bath thus 
formed, the prince having been washed, the defiled waters flowed into a river, 
and formed the Karamnasa. Religious Hindus must carefully avoid the 
slightest touch of the waters. Beneath this superstition, there is probably 
a simple warning against its use on hygienic grounds only. 
The Durgavati takes its rise in the Kaderkho, a valley of exceeding 
beauty, “ dark, deep, and cold.” Descending from the tablelands, it winds 
on, some six miles north, to the Sugiakho, which strikes off to the west, and 
stretches some ten miles between steep walls of rock. The valley is there 
contracted into a few hundred feet, through which the stream cuts its 
course into the open country. After a very winding flow it meets the 
Karamnasa along with other tributaries, the entire volume of water falling 
on the northern slope of the range being thus ultimately drained through 
the channel of the Karamnasa only to the Ganges. 
The Son, although it takes its rise in a more distant country, drains the 
southern slope, and is both a source of beauty and strength to the tract 
lying between it and the hill range. It is also considered a sacred stream. 
Mr. Wheeler gives a tradition which assigns the easterly course of the Son 
to disappointed love with the Narmada. The story which is locally cur¬ 
rent here is, however, different. According to it, the Son was originally 
confined within the sacred pool of Amarakantak. On the banks of this pool 
stood the hermitage of Jamadagni, the father of Parasurama. Near at hand 
a rustic once drove his plough to which he attached a calf and its dam. The 
calf resented this cruelty by driving its horns into the chest of the plough¬ 
man, who died on the spot. This taint of sin turned black the white skin 
of the calf ; on going into the pool, however, the calf was purified and regained 
its original colour. Parasurama observed this, and considered that the pure 
waters of the pool should be sent out for the good of humanity. He cleft 
the side of the spring with one stroke of his jparasu or axe, and thus made 
the infant Son stream away. The left bank of the Son, which at present 
includes the district of Gaya, was called the Kita Des. # There were few 
* In confirmation of this name, the following text may he cited: 
The modern name of the ^2^3 is the Pun-pun. Deokuli in the Arwal Parga- 
nah was the hermitage of Chavana Muni, where an annual fair is still held. Raj agriha 
in Bihar is too well known to require notice. 
