PANOHALA, the country north and west of Dehli between the foot of the Himalaya and the Chambal. It was in the dominion of a race who were ruling in India at the time of the Kuru and I'andava strife. Their away extended through the whole Southern Doab beyond Benares, as far as the river Karmanvati, which was for a time considered the frontier line of the two tribes. Canyacubya, the modern Canouj, appears in early times to have been called Panchala. It seems to have been a long but narrow territory, extending ou the east to Nepal (which it included), and on the west along the Chambal and Banns as far as Ajmir. Little else is known of its early history, except through the Rajput writings and traditions collected by Colonel Tod, and the inscriptions examined by Profebaor Wilson, with thou, trans lated and discutieed by Principal Mill. The former relate that it was taken from &Dollar Motu dynasty, A.D. 470, by the Ralitor Rit in uts, who retained it until its conquest by the uhanunad ans n A.D.a.n. 1193, when they withdrew to their present seats in Marwar. The identity of Canouf amd Panchala is it/mulled in Menu 11, 19. Its hunts, as assigned in the 3latiabluirata are made out by connecting notes in the Oriental Magazine, 135, iv. 142. These boundaries, enlarged a little on the south and on the west, are the same as those assigned by Colonel Tod to the same kingdom at the time of the 31uhatumadatt invasion. According to the 31aliabliarata, the great kingdom of Panchala extended from the Himalaya moun tains to the Chambal river. The capital of North Panchala, or Robilkhand, was Ahi-Chhatra, and that of South Panchala, the Central Gangetic Doab, was Kampilya, now Kampil, on the old Ganges between Budaon and Farkhabad. Just before the great war, or about 1430 n.c., the king
of Panchala, named Drupada, was conquered by Drona, the preceptor of the five Pandu. Drona retained North Panchala for himself, but restored the southern half of the kingdom to Drupada. According to this account, the mune of Ahi Chhatra, and consequently also the Buddhist legend of Adi-Raja and the serpent, are many centuries anterior to the rise of Buddhism. It would appear, however, that the Buddhists must have adopted and altered the legend to do honour to their great teacher, for Hiwen Thsang records that outside the town there was a Naga-hrada or serpent tank' near which Buddha had preached the law for seven days in favour of the serpent king, and that the spot was marked by a st'hupa of king Asoka. In A.D. 1870, the only existing st'hupa at this place was called Chattr, and General Cunningham infers that the Buddhist legend represented the Naga king after his conversion as forming a canopy over Buddha with his ex panded hood. He thinks also that the st'hupa erected on the spot where conversion took place would naturally have been called Ahi-Chhatra, or the serpent canopy.' A similar story is told at Buddha Gaya of the Naga king 3fuchalinda, who with his expanded hood sheltered Buddha from the shower of rain produced by the malignant demon Mara. The great mound of ruins called Atranji-Khera is situated on the right or west bank of the Kali Nadi, four miles to the south of Karsana, and eight miles to the north of Egta, on the Grand Trunk Road. The Panchali-Kudu in Telugu is a native of Panchala.—Bunsen, p. 554; Elphinsione, i. p. 402; Cunningham's India, p. 360 ; As. lies. viii. pp. 336-341.