Historical Geography of Ancient India c10.269

c10.269

Nirbhindyā.—This river is mentioned in Kālidāsa’s Meghadūta (I. 28-29) as lying between Ujjain and the river Vetravatī (Betwa). The Vāyu Purāṇa mentions it as Nirbhindyā (XLV, 102). Really speaking, this river lay between Vidiśā and Ujjayinī, i.e., between the Daśārṇa (Dhasan forming a tributary of the Vetravatī) and the Śiprā. It is identified with the modern Kālisindh which forms a tributary of the Carmanvatī (Journal of the Buddhist Text Society, V, p. 46). The Kālisindh flows north from the Vindhya range to join the Chambal on the right. As the Kālisindh is probably the Sindhu of Kālidāsa’s Meghadūta, the identification of the Nirbhindyā with the Newaj, another tributary of the Chambal, seems to be more reasonable (Thornton’s Gazetteer, Gwalior, Bhupal).