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There is a statement to the like effect in a section of the Padmapurana, the Kasi-máhatmya, V., 58:

वाराणसीति यत्ख्यातं तन्मानं निगदामि वः ।
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The same idea occurs more than once in a putative appendage to the Skanda-purana, the Kási-khanda. It will suffice to quote XXX., 20, 21: दक्षिणोत्तरदिग्भागे कृत्वासिं वरणां सुराः ॥

क्षेत्रस्य मोक्षनिक्षेपरक्षारिवृतिमाययुः ।

Particular reference may, also, be made to stanzas 69 and 70 of the same chapter; and similar passages might be extracted from other Purâņas.

The Asi-now known as the Asî, and still trickling during the rainy season, despite Father Vivien de Saint-Martin's scepticism as to its existence,-has a niche in the Haima-kośa, a work of the twelfth century. The Varunâ (sic) and Asî are named in the Calcutta edition of the Mahabharata, Bhishma-parvan, sl. 338. But, in my annotations on the English translation of the Vishnu-purána, Vol. II., p. 152, it is surmised that this stanza is an interpolation; and it may be added that is omitted from the text of the Mahabharata as accepted by the commentator Nilakaṇṭha; while the scholiast Arjunamiśra reads, at least in my manuscript, Charunâ and Asi.

Dr. Schwanbeck-Megasthenis Indica, p. 36, note,—is reminded, by Arrian's 'Epévveσis, of Varâņasî. Hereupon, Professor LassenIndische Alterthumskunde, Vol. I., Appendix, p. LIV.,-precipitately took the two for one; and he still holds to this opinion; for, in the second edition of his great work, Vol. I., p. 161, note 1, (1867), he writes: "Des Megasthenes Erennesis ist die vereinigte Varâņas!." This "conjunct Varânasi "-or, rather, what he unwarrantably calls its modern name, Barânaśî,-he compounds, incautiously, after Mr. Walter Hamilton, of two unknown streams, the Varâ and the Naśî. The Jábála-upanishad places Avimukta - which is a Paurâņik title of Benares,-between the Varanâ and the Nâsî or Nâsî; and the commentator, Sankarânanda, disciple of Ânandâtman, etymologizes the words. An anonymous expositor of the same Upanishad, whose work I consulted in India, reads varand and asi, explains them by pingala and iḍd, and makes the result of their conjunction, váráṇasi, in some acceptation or other, to be equivalent to sushumna. One need not stop to expatiate on such trifling.

signation Kâśi1 or Kâśî.2 Whence it arose history has

Something of the same sort is to be seen in the fifth chapter of the Kási-khanda.

Father Vivien de Saint-Martin-the genesis of whose fictitious river I trace in note 2 to p. xxviii.,-began with being disposed to make the Asî an affluent to the Varâṇâ, with a Varâṇasî below their confluence, and the city Varâṇasî therefrom denominated. Mémoires sur les Contrées Occidentales, Vol. II., p. 361. Here "il serait trèspossible que l'un de ces ruisseaux se fût nommé Asî, et qu'après sa réunion à la Varânâ, la petite rivière eût pris le nom composé de Varanasi qu'elle aurait communiqué à la ville." This, as speculation, will pass; but, to this writer, with his bias in favour of the theological or mythopeic method of geographizing, what are, at first, only suggestions, very soon ripen into indubitable certainties: "Cette rivière [the 'Epévveσis], la dernière de la liste d'Arrien, se reconnaît sans difficulté dans la Varânasî, petite rivière qui se jette dans la gauche du Gange à Bénarès, qui en a pris son nom (en sanscrit Vârânâsî).” Etude sur la Géographie Grecque et Latine de l'Inde, p. 286.

This author more than inclines to see Vârânâsî in the words Erarasa (or Cragausa) metropolis, foisted into the Latin translation of Ptolemy. Ibid., pp. 227, 351. Here, very much as just above, having to do with a Latin interpolation, he sets out with describing it as such, and as offering "un reste de ressemblance qu'on entrevoit encore à travers la corruption du mot;" and, a little while afterwards, as if process of time necessarily stood for an accession of facts and reasons, persuades himself that he may speak of une ville que Ptolémée énumère sous le nom altéré d'Erarasa,' and that he finds, therein, "la trace bien reconnaissable de Vârânâsî, forme sanscrite de notre Bénarès."

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I have everywhere scrupulously reproduced the varieties of spelling indulged in by the writer just cited.

The final d and the initial a of two words coalescing into a compound might, possibly, yield a; and Varana and Asi would, therefore, combine into Varanasi. But this form seems to be the peculiar property of a single recent and very indifferent lexicographer; and, moreover, the name of the second stream is, correctly, Asi, not Asî. In the Kási-khaṇḍa, XXX., 18, it is the subject of a pun, in connexion with asi, "a sword."

1 This is the oldest form, and that recognized in the Haima-kośa and by Ujjwaladatta's commentary on the Unnádi-sûtra.

2 Kâśi is not so markedly feminine as the more usual Kâsî, its derivative. Most Indian cities have feminine appellations.

long forgotten; but conjecture may, possibly, unravel its etymology.2

3

Among the descendants of Ayus was Kâśa, whose son is noticed under the patronyms of Kâśeya,5 Kâsîya, and Kâśi.' The regal successors of Kâśi, and

6

Kâśikâ is found in the Káśi-khanda, XXX., 70, and elsewhere. Compare Avantikâ for Avanti, as in note 1 to p. xxxiii., infra. 'The vocabularists refer the word to káś, "to shine." with agrees the Kási-khanda, XXVI., 67:

काशते च यतो ज्योतिस्तदनाख्येयमीश्वर ।

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अतो नामापरं चास्तु काशीति प्रथितं विभो ॥

And here

In the stanza immediately preceding this, the city is called Muktikshetra. Krishna is speaking; and he says that the radiance of Kâsî emanates from Siva.

If, where they interpret Kâsî by "splendid," Colonel Wilford and his numerous followers intend to take the word from the adjective káśin, they have forgotten that the feminine is not káść, but káśini. See the Asiatic Researches, Vol. III., p. 409.

2 Professor Wilson has already written: "It seems probable that the city [of Kâsi] was founded, not by him [Kshattravṛiddha], but by his grandson or great-grandson, denominated Kâśa and Kâsirâja.” Mr. James Prinsep's Benares Illustrated, p. 8. It is meant, here, I suppose, to hint a derivative connexion of Kâsî with Kâśa or Kâsiraja. The latter name Professor Wilson everywhere puts, erroneously, for "King Kâśi." See note 7 in the present page. See the English Vishnu-purána, Vol. IV., pp. 30-32.

4 Compare Mâṇḍûkeya, from Mâṇḍûka; and Swâphalki, from Swaphalka.

5 So reads the Harivamsa, śl. 1734, in the best MSS. accessible to me.

• Gana on Pânini, IV., II., 90; and the Brahma-purana.

7

Bhagavata-purâṇa, IX., XVII., 4. In the Vishnu-purána, he is called Kásirája; but the term, a compound, is there to be explained "Raja Kâsi." Differently, Kásirája, Káśipati, etc., descriptive of Ajâtaśatru, Divodâsa, Pratardana, and others, signify "Raja of the Káśis.” That काशिराज: may be the same as काशिषु नृपः is clear from the Mahabharata, Anuśásana-parvan, sl. 1949 and 1952.

equally their subjects, were called Kâśis.' Though at first a masculine appellation, Kâśi, as applied to the city so styled, is feminine.2 An exact parallel to this hypothetical evolution is not far to seek. The name of King Champa, femininized, became that of the metropolis of Anga, Champâ.3

The term Kâśi, denominating, if not a city, a people

1 Kâsi's successors were likewise known as Kâśyas and as Kâsikas. These terms are, all, actually employed. The last is, also, applied to persons or things pertaining to Kâsi.

• Kuntî, a woman, was so called from Kunti, a man.

Kâsî, according to the Vishnu-purâṇa,—see the English translalation, Vol. IV., p. 159,—was the name of the wife of Bhimasena. The reading is, however, erroneous, most probably. I find, as a variant, Kâśeyi. This, like the corresponding Kâśyâ of the Mahdbharata, Adi-parvan, él. 3829, is a derivative of Kâsi.

3 See the English Vishnu-purána, Vol. IV., p. 125.

I am not unaware of the gana on Pâṇini, IV., II., 82.

"In the Mahabharata, frequent mention of Kâsi occurs," according to Professor Wilson, as quoted in Benares Illustrated, p. 8. I should be much surprised to find Kâśî mentioned even once in the Mahábhárata.

Not till medieval times, it seems, do we read of the city of Kâsî. To the authority, on this behalf, of the Purâņas may be added that of an inscription which I have deciphered and published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, for 1862, pp. 14, 15. The document in question, a land-grant, was issued by Vinayakapâla, Raja of Mahodaya or Kanauj, about the middle of the eleventh century, it may be. Kâsî is there indirectly described as in the vishaya of Vârâņasî, in the bhukti of Pratishṭhâna. For Pratishthâna, vide infra, p. xxv., note 1.

It is, in my judgment, very doubtful indeed that Ptolemy's Kaooida metamorphoses Kâsi, as has been confidently asserted by Colonel Wilford and very many others. See the Asiatic Researches, Vol. III., p. 410; Vol. IX., p. 73.

Fă Hian may have intended to reproduce Kasirajya, "kingdom of the Kâśis,” in his words rendered by "le royaume de Kia chi." Vide infra, p. xxviii., note 1.

and its chieftains, occurs repeatedly in Sanskrit works of all but the highest antiquity.' Of Kâśi, in whatever sense of the word, we cannot, however, collect, from indigenous records, materials from which to con

The expression fayci actuať, in the Daśa-kumára-charita, means "Vârâṇasi, a city of the Kâsis." In the subjoined verse, from the Rámáyaṇa, Uttara-káṇḍa, XXXVIII., VI., 17, Vârâņasî is qualified by an expression meaning, the commentator says, "a city in the country of the Kâsis :"

तद्भवानद्य काशेयपुरीं वाराणसीं व्रज ।

Finally, in the Mahabharata, Adi-parvan, sl. 4083, 4084, we read of the king of the Kâsis as dwelling in the city of Vârâṇasî.

1 The oldest among them, probably, is Pâņini, IV., II., 116; with which compare IV., II., 113. Then come the Satapatha-bráhmaṇa, the Brihad-áranyaka and Kaushitaki-brahmana Upanishads, etc., etc. In some of these works, the substantive is involved in the adjective Kâśya. This word, like Kâśika, for which see the Mahabharata, Udyoga-parvan, sl. 5907,-means, etymologically, Káśian. But commentators on old writings explain it, and rightly, to signify "king of the Kâsis." Kâśirâja and Kâśya are used of the same person in the Bhagavad-gìtá, I., 5, 17.

The Rigveda affords no warrant for connecting with the Kâsis any person whom it mentions. It speaks of Divodâsa, and it speaks of Pratardana; but only in later literature are they called father and son, and rulers of the Kâsis; and, where Kâtyâyana, in his Rigvedánukramanika, characterizes the latter as Kásirája, he may have expressed himself metachronically, under the influence of a modern tradition which he and his contemporaries accepted. As to the former, we find, indeed, in post-vaidik books, two Divodâsas; into whom a single personage seems to have been parted. One of them is son of Badhryaśwa, as in the Rigveda; but it is the other, the son of Bhîmaratha, and father of Pratardana, that is called king of the Kâśis. It may be added, that there is no ground for considering Badhryaswa and Bhîmaratha to be two names of one and the same person. See the English Vishnu-purána, Vol. IV., pp. 33, and 145, 146. Badhryaśwa, not Bahwaśwa, is the reading of the Vishnu-purána. Correct accordingly Professor Wilson's translation of the Rigveda, Vol. III., p. 504, note 1. See, further, the Mahabharata, Anuśásana-parvan, Chapter XXX.

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