The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.114

v2.c17.s1.114

**Gandhavati River—**There is also another which is esteemed as highly. It is the River Gandhavatī, (*Gandhavatī Nadī*)—a tiny rivulet which has its source in a spring in the Udayagiri hill, and flows round the west, the north and the east sides of the town. In November, when I saw it, the water was about eight feet broad and a foot deep in the middle, but it was flowing in a pretty strong current. Its banks are so low that it is somewhat difficult to mark the boundary line. The *Ekāmra Purāṇa* takes it to be the same with the River Ganges which was transferred to this place when Śiva forsook Benares to settle in the Mango Forest (ante, p. [64]). The whole stream is reckoned sacred, but a spot in the neighbourhood of Kapileśvara, close by the temple of Sūkṣmeśvara, described to be the same with Prayāga where the rivers Ganges and Yamuna come into contact at Allahabad, is extolled highly for its sin-removing quality The *Śiva Puraṇa* makes the rivulet rise in the Vindhya Hill, but the *Ekāmra Purāṇa* is geographically more correct. The *Kapila Saṃhitā* identifies the Ganges with the Mahānadī, but this is not recognised by the *Ekāmra Purāṇa*. These identifications, however, are creatures of fancy, and consistency in such cases is not a matter of importance, and seldom borne in mind.