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INTRODUCTION
45
cross the Vindhya range, after which they pass on to the Sahya range, and then reach the Malaya hills and thereafter the seashore. In the Rāmāyaṇa (6.4.34 ff.) they first cross the Sahya and the Malaya, and then reach the Mahendra hill from the peak of which Rāma looks at the ocean. They then descend to the magnificent forest on the seashore (velāvanamanuttamam) and establish their camp there. It is noteworthy that the Bengal and Northwestern recensions of the Rāmāyaṇa read here Vindhya for Sahya.' Pargiter, basing his conclusions on the Bengal recension edited by Gorresio, identifies this Vindhya with the hills and plateau of South Mysore. “These stretch across from the Western to the Eastern Ghats, and forin a dividing ridge in the south, somewhat like the Vindhya Range in the north : so that the same name may not inaptly be applied to them'. He points out that 'it cannot be supposed that Rāma, after reaching Kişkindhā, which was certainly far south of the Godavarī, and forming the alliance with Sugrīva, would have retraced his steps to the north of the modern Vindhya, and separated himself from Sugrīva by that immense distance."
It may be added in support of Pargiter's conjecture that the Rāmāyaṇa has a verse which says that the mountains Vindhya, Krsnagiri and Sahya are the constant haunt of a Vānara chief variously called Rambha or Parvata, which shows that these were located not far from each other. Krsnagiri seems to refer to the hills near modern Krishṇagiri in Salem District of Tamil Nadu; and Vindhya might very well be the hills of South Mysore and the southern portion of the Eastern Ghats. This helps us to understand Pravarasena's statement that the Vānara hosts
1 5 74.46; 5.75. 1, 2, 13 Cal. ed.; 5,72. 5, 6, 7, 14 Lahore ed. 2 Pargiter op. cit., pp. 259, 261. 3 6.17.26. crit, ed,
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