________________ HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY OF VAISALI AS GIVEN IN THE FIRST MUZAFFARPUR DISTRICT GAZETTEER* L. S. S. O'MALLEY, I. C. S., Part One History of Vaisali to the Maslim Conquest (A. D. 1323) Prehistoric Period [12Muzaffarpur, lying on one of the great lines of Aryan immigration, was occupied at an early period by races of Aryan descent, and according to the legend preserved in Vedic literature, it formed part of the country in which the Videhas settled on their migration from the Punjab. The legend relates that Agni, the god of fire, accompanied the Videhas in their march eastwards from the banks of the Saraswati, and when they came to the broad stream of the Gandak, informed them that their home lay to the east of the river. Thenceforward, the Videhas lived The material divided here by ourselves into two part , viz., Part I (History) and Part II (Archaeology), has been extracted from L. S. S. O'Malley's Bengal District Gazetteers : Muza ffarpur (Gazetteer of the Muzaffarpur District), The Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, Calcutta, 1907, pages 12-19 (Chapter II : History) and 138-142, 144, 159-160 (Chapter XV : Gazetteer) respectively. We have not introduced any change, not even in spellings, except the following: (i) Page numbers have been indicated (within brackets] in bold type. Through this, our readers have been enabled even to refer to the original book itself with exact page number. (u) Diacritical marks, inadequately indicated, have been completely omitted here to avoid confusion. (iii) Headings and sub-headings given on the margin have been transferred to the main pripted space in Part I here. Headings given on the left-hand side of the printed space in the original book have been transferred to the middle of the page here in Part II; also, names of individual villages covered under Basarh have been added as sub-beadings in italics. Ed.
