the Mânavas is called Brahmâvarta. In the Sûtras which supplied the material to the authors of the metrical law-books, the Vinasana is mentioned for the first time in the Baudhâyana Sûtras, I, 2, 9, 'Âryâvarta lies to the east of the region where (the Sarasvatî) disappears, to the west of the Black-forest, to the north of the Pâripâtra (mountains), to the south of the Himalaya.' The name of the Sarasvatî is not mentioned, but no other river can be understood. What is curious, however, is, that in the Vasishtha Sûtras where the same frontiers of Âryâvarta are given (I, 8), the MSS. read originally prâg âdarsât, i. e. east of the Âdarsa mountains, which was afterwards changed into prâg adarsanât, and interpreted 'east of the invisibility, or of the disappearance of the Sarasvatî.' Vasishtha quotes another authority, a Gâthâ of the Bhâllavins, which says: 'In the west the boundary river,' i. e. sindhur vidhâranî. This sindhur vidhâranî is another name of the old Sarasvatî, and in Baudhâyana I, 2, 12, the same verse is quoted, though the reading of vidhâranî varies with vikaranî and visaranî. See Bühler, l. c. Madhyadesa is mentioned in one of the Parisishtas (MS. 510, Wilson) as a kind of model country, but it is there described as lying east of Dasârna a, west of Kâmpilya b, north of Pâriyâtra c, and south of the Himavat, or again, in a more general way, as the Duâb of the Gangâ and Yamunâ d.

It is very curious that while in the later Sanskrit literature

the disappearance of the Sarasvatî in the desert is a fact familiar to every writer, no mention of it should occur during the whole of the Vedic period, and it is still more curious that in one of the hymns of the Rig-veda we should have a distinct statement that the Sarasvatî fell into the sea:

VII, 95, 1-2. prá kshódasâ dhâ´yasâ sasre eshâ´ sárasvatî dharúnam â´yasî pû´h, pra-bâ´badhânâ rathyẫ-iva yâti vísvâh apáh mahinâ´ síndhuh anyâ´h. ékâ aketat sárasvatî nadî´nâm súkih yatî´ girí-bhyah â´ samudrâ´t, râyáh kétantî bhúvanasya bhû´reh ghritám páyah duduhe nâ´hushâya.

1. 'With her fertilising stream this Sarasvatî comes forth—(she is to us) a stronghold, an iron gate. Moving along as on a chariot, this river surpasses in greatness all other waters. 2. Alone among all rivers Sarasvatî listened, she who goes pure from the mountains as far as the sea. She who knows of the manifold wealth of the world, has poured out to man her fat milk.'