Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c8.s3.75

c8.s3.75

Of course Vidarbha is far to the south ; but the ancient Virāṭa or Matsya country actually lay in the Alwar-Bharatpur-Jaipur region to the south of the Delhi area and to the east of the desert. Vidarbha was never its southern boundary ; but it may have been mentioned as a country lying in the south—whatever be the distance—of the Virāṭa country. One of the Śākta Piṭhas is said to be in Virāṭa where the Devī is Ambikā and the Bhairava Amṛta. There was a Virāṭa country in Northern Bengal, according to some manuscripts of the *Bhavisya Purāṇa*.¹ The Nivṛti country (comprising Vardhanakūṭa= Bardhankoṭ, Kacchapa=Cochbihār or, more probably, Kachhar, and Rangpur) has there been described as :