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CULTURAL DATA IN TILAKAMANJARĪ
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another. The river which still survives flows between the Satadru and the Yamunā. It was known to the Vedic Aryans as a mighty river which flowed into the sea. The river issued forth from Himālayas. It rises in the hills of Sirmur in the Himālayan range, called the Sivālika and emerges into the plains at Ādbadri in Ambala. It is considered sacred by the Hindus. According to the Mahābhārata' people offer Piņdas to their ancestors on the bank of this sacred river. There existed on its bank a forest sacred to Ambikā known as the Ambikāvana.?
Dhanapāla refers to "Vaitarnī' river having the current of its waters trumpet hued like the gush of gore.
According to Monier Williams, it is the name of the Hindustyx i.e. the river that flows between the earth and the lower regions or the abode of the departed spirits presided over by yama, hot, fetid and filled with blood, hair and bones etc. There is also a sacred river in Kalinga or Orissa bearing the name Vaitarani.
Dr. B. C. Law has given details about the history of this river. He says This river rising among the hills in the north west of the Keonjhar state, flows first in a south westerly and then in an easterly direction, forming successively the boundaries between the Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj states and between Keonjhar and Cuttack. It enters the district of Cuttack near the village of Balipur and after flowing in a winding easterly course across the delta, where it marks the boundary line between Cuttack and Balasore, it joins its waters with the Brāhmaṇi and passing by Cāndbāli finds its way into the sea under the name of Dharma river. The principal branches thrown off from the right bank of the Vaitarņi are cross streams connecting it with the Kharsua. According to Hindu tradition Kāma when marching to Ceylon to rescue his wife Sītā from the clutches of the ten-headed demon Rāvana, halted on its back on the borders of Keonjhar. In commemoration of this event many people visit this river every January. This river which is mentioned in the Mahābhārata6 is situated in Kalinga. According to the Padma and Matsya Purānas, this sacred river is brought down to the world
1. Vanaparva 83.p. 571; 84. p. 574 2. Bhāgavata Purāņa XI 34.2-17, p. 543 GPE 1961 3. 37140169CAO uit fufcictafuichal TM Vol. I. p. 128. See Skt. English Dr. V.S.
Apte. 4. Skt. Eng. Dict. Vaitarņi. 5. TM Vol. I. p. 130. Vol. II p. 216. 6. Vanaparva Ch. 113, 85.6. p.516 GPE part 1; Ādiparva 169.22, p.215
