The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.39.2

v2.c17.39.2

With them its history brings from remote antiquity as a lovely tope of a single mango tree. Thus the *Kapila Saṃhitā* : "In a former age there existed on this spot a mango tree of great merit, and because there was an only tree, the place is called the grove of one mango tree (*ekāmra vana*),—a lofty tree with mangificent branches, decked with gem-like leaves, and bearing fruits which bestowed the fourfold blessings of virtue, wealth, desirable objects and salvation."¹⁹ The *Ekāmra Purāṇa* accounts for the name in a similar way and almost in the same words.²⁰ The word *vana* of the name is optinally and frequently replaced by *vipina*, *kānana* and other synonyms for a wood, a grove, or a forest, as also by the word *kṣetra*, “a sacred spot,” though the latter is usually understood to include a much wider area than the former, the one comprising a circuit of one *kroṣa* or two miles²¹ and the other nine *yojanas* or fifty-four miles.²² “It was in the Tretā Yuga,” or second age, says the [63] *Kapila Saṁhitā*, “that Śiva, wishing to retire from the din and sin of over-crowded Benares, sought the advice of Nārada, and, at the suggestion of that sage, took up this qutie, secluded, delightful retreat for his abode.” Kapila quotes the authority of Bharadvāja, who, he says, first imparted the secret and interesting account of this move on the part of Śiva to a company of sages assembled near the sacred pool of Puṣkara.