Historical Geography of Ancient India c8.144

c8.144

*Bhāgīrathī*.—This river is mentioned in the *Harivaṃśa* (I, 15) and in the *Yoginītantra* (2. 4, pp. 128-129). It is so called because Bhagīratha brought this sacred river (*Brahmāṇḍa*, II, 18. 42). It flows through Suhma in Bengal (Dhoyī’s *Pavanadūta*, V. 36). According to the Sena and Candra Copperplates, the Bhāgīrathī is the Ganges (*Inscriptions of Bengal*, Vol. III, p. 97). The Naihati copperplate of Ballālasena points out that the Bhāgīrathī was regarded as the Ganges, and the queen mother performed a great religious ceremony on its banks on the occasion of the solar eclipse (*Ibid.*, p. 74). The Govindapur copperplate of Lakṣmaṇasena states that the Hooghly river was called Jāhṇavī, which flowed by the side of Betaḍ in the Howrah district (Ibid., pp. 94, 97).