Mythology
The ancient name of the Chambal was Charmanvati, meaning the river on whose banks leather is dried. In due course of time, this river became famous as the river of ‘chamda’ (skin) and was named as Charmanvati.
The epic Sanskrit narrative the Mahabharata, refers to the Chambal river as the Charmanyavati : originating from the blood of thousands of cows sacrificed by the Aryan King Rantideva.
- "So large was the number of animals sacrificed in the Agnihotra of that king that the secretions flowing from his kitchen from the heaps of skins deposited there caused a veritable river which from this circumstance, came to be called the Charmanwati."
Charmanwati was the southern boundary of Panchala Kingdom. King Drupada ruled the southern Panchalas up to the bank of the Charmanwati river (1:140).
In the Mahabharata, the Chambal area was a part of Shakuni’s kingdom. The infamous dice game whereby Shakuni won the kingdom of the Pandavas' for his nephew Duryodhana was played hereabouts. After the attempted disrobing of Draupadi (the daughter of Drupada) she cursed any one who would drink the water of the Charmanwati river. The legends of its curse by Draupadi and it's bloody ‘unholy’ origins due to King Drupada have helped the Chambal to survive unpolluted by man, and its many animal inhabitants to thrive relatively untouched. The Chambal remains one of India’s most pristine rivers.
Read more about this topic: Chambal River
Famous quotes containing the word mythology:
“I walk out into a nature such as the old prophets and poets, Menu, Moses, Homer, Chaucer, walked in. You may name it America, but it is not America; neither Americus Vespucius, nor Columbus, nor the rest were the discoverers of it. There is a truer account of it in mythology than in any history of America, so called, that I have seen.”
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