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June, 1876.)
ANTIQUITIES AT HÅNAGAL.
179
name as at present in the 11th and 12th cen. According to South-Indian writers, Virata turies, viz. Panangal, a sub-division of the is one of the seven Konkaņas|which ParaBana vâsi Twelve-thousand," the Hale-Kan. sur â ma peopled when he recovered them from nada P being equivalent to the modern H. By the sea. This accords better with the pretenthe inhabitants it is supposed to have been thesions of Hânagal, but the attempts to build Viratanagara of the Mahabharata, where anything like a probable theory on such slender the Påndava princes resided during their exile | foundations is evidently futile. from Indraprastha, as related in the fourth The position of Hânagal--on the edge of the book of the epic. On the right side of the en. Malnad, or forest region, bordering the Sahyadri closure, near the western wall, is a remarkable mountains, and on the frontier between the conical mound (F) exactly like the Teutonic mote- ancient Châlu ky a and Chêra kingdomshilis (of which many examples remain in Great may have given it some value as a military post Britain and elsewhere), which goes by the name when these two powerful states were in the of Kunti's hillock,' and is said to have been ascendant. But the absence of compactness and formed of the husks of the grain ground by her solidity in the character of the defences is unfor her sons, the three elder Påndava princes, favourable to such a hypothesis. After these during their twelve years' residence in the city. the Y Â da vas of Devagiri (now Danla.
Thinking this might have been formed from tå bad) and Dwarasa mudra, in Maisur, the débris of a ruined building, I ran a trench became the ruling powers in the 12th and 13th nearly into the centre at the base, and also dug centuries, and the latter established their authordown a few feet from the top, but it appeared ity in the districts north of the Tung abhato consist entirely of earth heaped up. I
dra, of which they have left lasting monuIn connection with the same local tradition, ments in the neighbouring tâluka of Koda. I the small ruined temple (No. 12) seems to have In the inscriptions Hanagal is described terbeen dedicated to Bhima Pandava as ritorially as a subdivision of "the Bana vâsi Kichak-ajit.
Twelve-thousand." Bana vas i was the seat of The position of the city of Virâta has not the chiefs of the Kâd amb a family, but these been satisfactorily ascertained. Professor Wil- were nothing more than feudatories during the son (8. v.) says it was "one of the midland eight or nine centuries of Châlukya supremacy. divisions of India, probably Berar." General Tradition, however, states them to have exerCunningham identifies it with Bairât, a place cised sovereign power before they were reduced in the North-West Provinces between Jaya pûr to subjection under Kalyan. The town is situand Alwar, on an afiloent of the B â n-ganga. ated higher up the valley, about twenty or He states it to have been the capital of the thirty miles south-west of Hanagal, on an ancient kingdom of Matsya, which, however, affluent of the Wardâ, and is encompassed by Wilson (s. v.) places far to the south-east- lofty grass-grown walls. It contains some fine about Dinajpur and Rangpur. From temples and other remains, which I had not the General's description it must have been a time to examine on a very hasty visit, during place of importance, and some of its ruins which, however, I was fortunate enough to pick are associated with the name of Bhima.s up some fine old coins. But every place in India to which no other It was known to the Greeks, and is mentioned origin can be assigned is attributed to the Pân- by Ptolemy in the 2nd century as Bavaaúra, davas; and Bairat, being only a hundred miles Bavaaga, "in the middle of the Pirates' counsouth-west of Dihli, is somewhat near to try" (VII. 1, 174). To whomsoever pertaining, have afforded a safe refuge to the exiled family. therefore, it muy be safely inferred that it had
1 I do not recollect to have met with similar tumuli in India, except where serving for sepulchral purposes, like those on the Nilagiri Hills described in the Transac- tions of the Internasional Prehistoric Congress for 1868 (p. 250, fig. 10).
Archæol. Rep. (1862-5), vol. II. p. 244; Ancient Geog. of India, p. 887.
These were Kirata, Viráta, Maheratta, Konkana, Hsiga, Tolava, and Kerala.
In three or four villages of that tAluka, the names of
which I forget, but I think Ratta balle is one, there are temples with groups of statuary on the roof, in front of the gopura, representing Hoysala Bellala, the founder of the dynasty, in the act of slaying the tiger from which he derived his name. The figure of the hero is generally bold and spirited, but the tiger is in the form of the mytho. logical sardula. I do not recollect to have seen detached groups of statuary in action in other parts of India.
Madras Journal of Literature and Science, vol. XIX. 0. S. (or III. N. S.) plato VIII. fig. 28, 29.
