Historical Geography of Ancient India c7.647

c7.647

*Vaitaraṇī*.—This river rising among the hills in the north-west of the Keonjhar State, flows first in a south-westerly and then in an easterly direction, forming successively the boundaries between the Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj States and between Keonjhar and Cuttack. It enters the district of Cuttack near the village of Balipur and after flowing in a winding easterly course across the delta, where it marks the boundary line between Cuttack and Balasore, it joins its waters with the Brāhmaṇī and passing by Cāndbālī finds its way into the sea under the name of the Dharma river. The principal branches thrown off from the right bank of the Vaitaraṇī are cross-streams connecting it with the Kharsua. According to Hindu tradition Rāma when marching to Ceylon to rescue his wife Sītā from the clutches of the ten-headed demon Rāvaṇa, halted on its bank on the borders of Keonjhar. In commemoration of this event large number of people visit this river every January. (*Law, Holy Places of India*, p. 15.) This river which is mentioned in the *Mahābhārata* (Vanaparva, Ch. 113; cf. *Mahābh.*, 85, 6-7) is situated in Kaliṅga. According to the *Padma* and *Matsya Purāṇas*, this sacred river is brought down to the world by Paraśurāma. The *Padmapurāṇa* (Ch. 21) refers to it as a holy river. It is referred to in the *Saṃyutta Nikāya* (I, 21), where it is stated to be the river Yama (*Yamassa Vetaraṇim*). The Buddhist tradition therefore seems to support the Brahmanical tradition of the Vaitaraṇī being the Yama’s river.