Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c43.t1.452

v3.c43.t1.452

be enabled to apply the test of inscriptions. In some, Raja Hun is again brought forward as the founder of the city; though others, with more probability, assign its foundation to the daughter of Chandrasen, the Pramar king of Malwa, who was delivered of a son on this spot while on a pilgrimage.¹ Another ascribes it to a more humble origin than either, *i.e.* to Jasu, a poor woodcutter of the ancient tribe of Or,² who, returning homewards from his daily occupation, dropped his axe upon the *paras-patthar*, with the aid of which he transmuted iron to gold, and raised ‘the city of the moon’ (Chandravati); and the lake is still called after him Jasu Or ka talab. The Pandu Bhim likewise comes in for his share of the founder’s fame; who, with his brethren during their covenant with the Kauravas, found concealment in the forest; but his foe, fearing the effect of his devotions, sent his familiar to disturb them. The spirit took the form of a boar; but as he sped past him through the thicket, Bhim discharged an arrow, and on the spot where this fell, the Chandrabhaga sprung up. Whoever was the founder, I have little doubt that tradition has converted Yasodharman,³ the grandson of Udayaditya, the monarch of all Malwa, into the woodcutter; for not only does this prince’s name occur in one of the inscriptions found here, but I have discovered it in almost every ancient city of Central India, over which his ancestors had held supreme power from the first to the thirteenth century of Vikrama.⁴