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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1874.
kesvara, however, his brother quite forgot tion of Vishņu, and the exterminator of the to get a linga for him, or, as others say, failed Kshatriya caste, after reclaiming the Konkan to arrive at the time appointed, and consequently from the ocean, established a great number of Rama, growing impatient, made one himself of tirthas and lingas in it. He at the ame time the sand at the spot. Just after this sand-linga established वालकेशांमहाअष्टो बाणगंगासरस्वती.i.e. the was made, Lakshmana arrived with his
very great Waluk eśvara and Bå nagang å from Kabi, and had it set up there in a temple
tank. which was then named Lakshman eśvara,
Probably the B à nag an gå mentioned here while that made by Rima got another temple, is not the one made by Râma by shooting an from which, however, on the arrival of the
arrow into the earth, or into På tåla, under Mlechchas or first foreign invaders, it jumped
the earth, but was made by Parasurama on the into the sea and disappeared. The place occasion when he is said to have stood on the top that was formerly named Lakshmaņeśvara
of the Sahyadri range and shot fourteen arrows, is called Walukešvara. Both the Muham
one of which may have fallen on this spot and madans and the Portuguese are said to have produced the tirtha. Such places are not undestroyed this Hindu temple, as they did common in the Konkan; e.g. in the village called many others on the coast; but about 150
Bå navali (village of the arrow) in the southern years ago a person by name Râma Kamat, a
part of the territory of Goa there is a tank of this Brahman, who is supposed to have been an
name, and the Sahyadri khanda states that influential person, and was the only wealthy
यत्रबाण पतत्यत्र बाण वल्लीति विश्रुता पुरी जाता पुण्यतमायम Hindu present at the laying of the corner-stone
artefarhat, i.e. "the place where an arrow (of of St. Thomas's Cathedral, - rebuilt it.
Parasurama) fell is known by the name of There is a tank here which has also its legend,
Banavali it became meritorious, and was which states that Rama being thirsty, and find
produced by the arrow of Rama." ing no water on the hill, shot an arrow into the
Now it is fair to mention that the latter nas earth, and forth with a tank made its appearance,
the authority of the Purâņas, while the former which is hence called B & natirtha,i.e. a tártha,
is from a manuscript of comparatively recent or holy place of ablation, produced by an arrow.
date. It is also sometimes called Bå naga ngâ, from
Bombay.--This word is derived from the app (bána.) an arrow, and Tg (gangá) a sacred
goddess Mumbâ , in whose honour the temple stream. Some people likewise call it Pâtáļa - Mumb A devi is named even in our days. The ganga, which is supposed to be the name of interpretation given by some writers of the a sacred river of Patala, or the infernal word Bombay as derived from two words of the regions.
Portuguese language, bom 'good,' and bahia Other writers, however, such as Valmiki,t 'bay,' cannot be correct. The Portuguese Vyåsa, Sridhar, and Mayur Pant, ll who could not have possibly combined the masculine have written the history of the war of Rama bom with the feminine bahia-at the most they with Råvaņa, make no mention of this episode
would have called it Boa bahia; but from the in Rama's life.
first the designation they gave it was not BomIn the first chapter of the second section of the bay, nor Boa bahia , but Bombaim. Not Sahyadri khanda of the Skinda Purana it is
only the earliest Portuguese writers, such as mentioned that Parasorâma, the sixth incarna,
Diogo Couto, Faria e Souza, and others; but • The Kolls, who, as will be shown hereafter, were the original inhabitants of Bombay, pay special devotion to
would again fall into foreign hands and the linga did not
choose to be a second time obliged to take refuge in the sand. this linga. My charge of the Kalaba Branch Dispensary as & physician brought me frequently in contact with the
+ V Almiki, the author of the Ramayana, is said to have Kols, whose principal quarter in the whole Konkan, I sap- been a Koli by caste, but is now considered a Rishi. pose, is Kalaba. One of the best-informed among them See Mahabharata (Vanaparvan, &c.). told me, some time ago, that the linga made by Rama, having from a distance "got scent" of the Mlechchas
Sridhar is a Marathi poet of great renown. He was long before they arrived at Bombay, jumped into the
resident of Pandharpur, and wrote the Ramavýjaya, or sands of Back Bay and disappeared. When Bombey was history of Rama, in Markthi in ove (rar) metre. restored to the Hindus, some of the Kolis dag at the place
Mayur Pant was an inhabitant of Baramati, in the where the linga had jumped, in order to recover and restore it to its former position; they dug until they had almost
Dekhan, and of the tribe of Karhlde BrAhmans. He has renched the antipodes, but the winga was not to be found.
written the history of Rama in arya (ar) metre in They gave up the sonroh, under the belief that Bombay | Marathi.
