Historical Geography of Ancient India c8.500

c8.500

*Tirabhukti* (Tirhut).—It was bounded on the north by the Himalayas, on the south by the Ganges, on the west by the river Gaṇḍak and on the east by the river Kosi. It comprised the modern districts of Champaran, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga as well as the strip of Nepal Terai. According to tradition Tirabhukti means the land in which the three great sacrificial fires were performed (*Devī Purāṇa*, Ch. 64). Cunningham (*A.S.I., Reports*, Vol. XVI) holds that the lands lying in the valleys of the little Gaṇḍak and Bāghmatī rivers were included in the Tirabhukti (*Darbhanga*, by O’Malley, *Bengal District Gazetteers*, pp. 157-158; *Muzaffarpur*, by O’Malley, *Bengal District Gazetteers*, pp. 159-60).