The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.70

v2.c17.70

That the tank is a very ancient one, there can be no question; but if the arguments adduced in a preceding chapter about the town of Bhuvaneśvara having been the metropolis of Aira be admitted, it may fairly be asked—is not the tank, said in the Hāthi Gumphā inscription to have been "consecrated" by Aira, the same with the one now under notice? It is the only large tank in the place, and at one time had flights of stone steps on all the four sides; and, as a large tank cannot readily disappear, and, associated with religion, is most likely to be preserved with care, the assumption is by no means unreasonable: at least there is nothing to disprove that it is the same, The inscription says that tank was "consecrated" by Aira, and not excavated, so it must be older than his time. It was most probably an old and sacred tank in his time, so he, as a usurper, thought the improving of it with flights of steps, in an arid plain having no adequate water-supply, would be an act well calculated to win the good-will of the people. The antiquity of the tank is vouched for by a verse in the *Vana Parva* of the *Mahābhārata*, where it is said that Yudhiṣṭhira, during his pilgrimage, visited the place, and bathed in the sacred pool of Vindu Hrada. It should be added, however, that the verse does not occur in the Asiatic Society's printed edition, nor in six MSS. which I have consulted. Were it otherwise, still it should be remarked that the descriptions of sacred pools in the *Mahābhārata* are of doubtful authenticity. The antiquity and authority of the great epic have been, in India, universally admitted from a very long time, and it was an object with all who wished to raise the character of any particular place of sanctity, to give its name a place in the *Mahābhārata*, and the interpolation of a verse or two was by no means a difficult task, at a time when printing was unknown, and MSS. exceedingly rare.