History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.t2.130

v5.c74.t2.130

Brahmā is supposed to have said to Rudra 'I have given you a kṣetra of the extent of five krośas; when the best of rivers, Gaṅgā, will flow through this kṣetra, the city will be great and holy, the Ganges, as it flows northwards (in Banaras) for two yojanas, will be holy'. If in any texts there be any differences between the extents of Avimukta, it must be supposed that there is an option,¹⁴³⁴ (or, as the Tīr. C. suggests, the differences refer to different *kalpas* i. e. ages). It is clear that Vārāṇasī was that strip of land, the four boundaries of which were the Ganges to the east, Asi to the south, the shrine of Dehalī-Vināyaka to the west and the river Varaṇā to the north. In the 7th century Hiouen Thsang, the Chinese pilgrim, notes that Banaras was 18 *lis* (about 3½ miles) in length and about 5 or 6 *lis* (a little more than a mile) in breadth. This makes it clear that the city was then bounded as now by the Varaṇā and Asi. Vide Beal's B. R. W. (vol. II p. 44).