Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.222

c6.222

Dvaitavana.—The Pāṇḍavas lived in this forest during the period of their exile. It was considered to be a free land over which there was no sway of any monarch. It was so called because there was a lake called Dvaita within its boundary. According to the Mahābhārata it was close to a desert and the Sarasvatī flowed through it. It was not far from the Himalayas lying between Taṅgana on the north-east and Kurukṣetra and Hastināpura on the south-east. It was from this place the Pāṇḍavas started on a pilgrimage as described in the Vanaparva of the Mahābhārata. (E.I., XXVII., Pt. VII, July 1948, pp. 319ff.).