includes Rajputana and ends in Baroda and Bombay, lasts five or six years. Frequently, besides the courts of princes, the most renowned places of pilgrimage are. likewise visited, and the Dharma receives its due share of attention, besides the Artha and Kâma.
In Bilhana's days the order of the grand tour was, of course, somewhat different. After leaving his native country he made for the banks of the Jamna, along which the high-road from North-Western into Central India was situated then as now. The first town, in which he stopped for some time, was the sacred Tirtha, Mathurá; thence he crossed over northwards to the Ganges and visited Kdnoj. Following apparently the course of the latter river, he arrived at its confluence with the Jamnâ at Prayaga, (Allahâbâd,) and finally at Banaras.[१] This town appears to have been the eastern-most point in his travels. It would seem that either at Bantras or in travelling back westwards he made the acquaintance of Karna, a prince holding Dáhala or Dáhála. The latter name is stated[२] to be an equivalent of Chedi or Bandelkhand, an explanation which is confirmed by the statement that Karna had conquered the hill fort Kalanjara, situated south-west of Allahâbâd close to the Vindhya range. The poet's residence at Karna's court appears to have been of considerable duration and one of the brilliant points in his career, as he mentions his victory over the poet Gangadhara and that he composed during his stay in Dâhala a poem in honour of Râma. For, the statement, that he cooled by the floods of his song Ayodhya the capital of the husband of Sita (XVIII. 94), seems to me rather to have this meaning than to point to a journey to Oude.
पृष्ठम्:विक्रमाङ्कदेवचरितम् - बिल्हण.pdf/२२
एतत् पृष्ठम् परिष्कृतम् अस्ति
18
INTRODUCTION.
