The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t12: Vrindávana.
The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t12
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Vrindávana.
c6.s3.t12.1
The city of *Klisoboras* has not yet been identified, but I feel satisfied that it must be *Vrindávana*, 6 miles to the north of Mathura.[*] *Vrindávana* means the “grove of basil-trees,” which is famed over all India as the scene of Krishna’s sports with the milkmaids. But the earlier name of the place was *Kâlikávartta*, or “Kalika’s whirlpool,” because the serpent *Kálika* was fabled to have taken up his abode just above the town, in a *Kadamb* tree, overhanging the Jumna. Here he was attacked by Krishna, and the rapid convolutions of his tail in his dying struggles are said to have caused the eddy, which is now known by his name. Now, the Latin name of *Clisobora* is also written *Carisobora* and *Cyrisoborka* in different MSS., from which I infer that the original spelling was *Kalisoborka*, or, by a slight change of two letters, *Kalikoborta* or *Kâlikábarta*. In the Prem Sâgar this whirlpool of the Jumna is attributed to the poison that was vomited forth by the serpent *Kâli* against Krishna, when he was swimming in the river. Allusion is made to the natural increase of the serpent’s poison by offerings of milk, which would seem to refer to a previous state of serpent-worship. Milk offerings are still made occasionally, but only to test the divine nature of the serpent, who is supposed to possess the most miraculous powers of drinking. In the last century, Raja Chet Singh, of Benares, is said to have poured all the milk of the two cities of Mathura and Vrindâvan down the hollow *Kadamb* tree, and as the waters of the Jumna were not even tinged, the serpent *Kâlika’s* miraculous powers of milk-drinking were established more firmly than ever.
c6.s3.t12.2
∗ See Map No. X.