Indian Antiquary Vol 48

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 286

BAL
BÅL
place. His queens and other members of his family died on the funeral pyre (the spot is still pointed out in the fort,) by the accidental flying of a pair of pigeons carrying the news of his defeat at the moment of his victory over the Yavana chief Bâyadumba of Manipur, the Bâbâ Adam of local tradition, who had invaded the town of Bikramapura or as it was called Ballâlapuri, at the instigation of Dharma Giri, the mahanta of the celebrated Mahadeva called Ugramadhava of Mahasthana, whom the king had insulted and banished from his kingdom (Ananda Bhatta's Ballala-Charita, chs. 26 and 27). Båyådumba or Baba Adam's tomb is half a mile to the north of Ballala-badi. Vikramapura was the birth-place of Dipaikara Sri Jiâ na, the great reformer of Lamaism in Tibet, where he went in A.D. 1038, and was known by the name Atiśa. Rampala was also the capital of the Chandra and Varma lines of kings.
BAlmiki-Asrama--Bithur, fourteen miles from Cawnpur, which was the hermitage of
Rishi Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana. Sità, the wife of Ramachandra, lived at the hermitage during her exile, where she gave birth to the twin sons, Lava and Kuša. The temple erected in honour of Valmiki at the hermitage is situated on the bank of the Ganges (Râmdyana, Uttara, ch. 58). Sita is said to have been landed by Lakshma a, while conveying her to the hermitage, at the Sati-ghâţ in Cawnpur. A large heavy metallic spear or arrow-head of a greenish colour is shown in a neighbouring temple close to the Brahmâvartta-gh åt at Bithur, also situated on the bank of the Ganges, as the identical an uw with which Lava wounded his father, Råmachandra, in a fight for the Asvamedha horse; this arrow-head is said to have been discovered a few years ago in the bed of the river Ganges in front of the hermitage.
Baloksha-Beluchistan. The name occurs only in the 57th chapter of the Aradang
Kalpalata. From the names of other places and that of Milindra, perhaps the Greek king Menander, mentioned in that chapter, Baloksha appears to be the country of the "Balokshias" or Beluchis. It is called Balokshi in the Bodhisattvavadana-Kalpasútra (Dr. R. Mitra's Sans. Buddh. Literature of Nepal, p. 60). Beluchistan was formerly a Hindu kingdom and its capital Kelat or Kalat (which means fort) was originally the abode of a Hindu ruler named Sewamal, after whom the fort there was called Kalat-i-Sewa, now known by the name of Kalat-wa-Neecharah. One of the most ancient places in Beluchistan is the island called Sata-dvîpa (popularly known as Sunga-dvipa) or the island of Sata or Astola (Astula or Kali), the Asthala of Ptolemy and Sutalishefalo of Hiuen Tsiang (Astulesvara). just opposite the port of Pasanee (Pashani) which is evidently the Pashân of Bodhisattvavadana-Kalpasútra.. According to tradition, it was once inhabited, but the inhabitants were expelled by the presiding goddess Kali in her wrath at an incest that was committed there. Sata-dvîpa is the Karmine of Nearchus, which is a corruption of Kalyana or the abode of Kali: There is still a Hindu temple at Kalat, which is dedicated to Kali or Durga, and which is believed to have been in existence long before the time of Sewa. Another place of Hindu antiquity in Beluchistan is the temple of Hingulaj (see Hingulà). Mustang also contains a temple of Mahadeva (JASB., 1843, p. 473—"Brief History of Kalat” by Major Robert Leech).