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In ancient times the
region covered by the present District of Ballia, lay in the kingdom
of Kosala. It is probable that the river Ganga, in its sweep towards
the north-east of present town of Ballia, formed the boundary of
Kosala which included the whole of the present Ballia district as
far as the junction of the Sadanira and the Great Gandakil. The
back-strewn mounds and fragmentary remains of structural character,
which evoke memories not only of mythology but also of history, are
found at a number of places in the district. The ruins in the
neighborhood of Barhmain and Hanumanganj, consisting of a large
mound called Mira Dih, covered with broken bricks and pottery of a
dark hue, are probably the remains of an ancient city. Khaira Dih,
near turtipar in tahsil Rasra. which is also a ruined site of a very
ancient city named Bhargavapur. is presumed to have been the place
where the rishi a Jamadagni lived. The excavations carried out under
the auspices of the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, have brought
to light relics of the black and red ware civilization (1450-1200
B.C.) at various sites such as Bhumapardih, Bijulipur, Godabirgarh,
Lovika-katopa, Maira Dih, Pakka Kot and Vainagadho, indicating that
the tract enjoyed settled life and civilization from this early
time. Popular legends also bear witness to the antiquity of these
sites, one such being that of the village of Karon, (in tahsil
Ballia), its name being considered to be a corruption of the word
Kam-anaunya. The legend is that Siva, being enraged at the attempts
of Kamdeo (the god of love) to beguile him from his meditations,
burnt him to ashes at this spot. Ballia itself is supposed to have
derived its name by the eruption of the name Valmiki, that of the
great sage who is said to have had his hermitage or to have dwelt
here for some time. It is also associated with Bhrigu, another
renowned sage who, according to a local legend, came and dwelt here
because of the sacredness of the place Other rishis Like Garga
Parasar, Vashishta and Atri are traditionally believed to have
visited the neighborhood of Ballia attesting to the sacredness of
its environs extending to a circuit of about 16 km. According to
tradition, Hansnagar (town of swans) a village 9.6 km. east of
Ballia. is said to take its name from the legend that a swan turned
into a man and a crow into a swan by drinking the water of the holy
river Ganga at this place. At a distance of about 137 km. from
Ballia there is an ancient tank named Dharmaranva Pokhara where an
excavation is said to have revealed that thousands of rishis
practiced austerities there and that to the north and east it there
were traces of the previous existence of and ancient forest probably
a remnant of the ancient Aranya. Some other places of this district
are also associated the Vedic sages: Bhalsand (in tahsil Ballia) is
said to have derived its name from Bhardwaja who resided there for
sometime and Dhuband (also in tahsil Ballia) to be a corruption of
Durvasa-ashrama, signifying the abode of Durvasa, a celebrated rishi. The
early political history of this region is complex. According to the
Puranic tradition the solar dynasty of Kshatriyas, founded by one
Manu, was the earliest known dynasty which gave Kosala (to which the
tract forming the district became subject) a systematic form of
government and of which Ikshvaku, the eldest son of Manu, famed in
Vedic tradition, was the first ruler. The line that descended from
produced a number of illustrious kings till the accession of Rama
who was the greatest ruler of this dynasty. Lakhnesar Dih, in tahsil
Rasra, is named after Lakhsmana, the brother of Ram, who is said to
have visited this place and built a temple at this spot in honour of
Mahadev. The remains of an ancient town are still to be seen on the
high band of the river in the form of immense piles of ruins, from
which numerous pieces of sculpture have been obtained from time to
time which bear testimony to the fact that even in those early times
it was a settled abode with a flourishing population Lakhshmana's
son. Chandraketu, entitled Malla (valiant) in the Ramayana,
established a kingdom known as the Malla state, of which some
portion of this district formed a part, It is probable that the
territories of the Mallas touched those of Kasi in the south,
Magadha in the south-east and Kosala in the south-west, of which an
area of the present day Ballia district, then formed a part. It came
to be the biggest and the most important of the autonomous states of
Kosala in respect of territorial extent and political influence. In
the sixth century B.C., Kosala came to be known as one of the
sixteen Mahajanapadas (great kingdoms). At the time it was ruled by
the powerful king. Mahakosala His son, Prasenjit the last great
monarch of the solar dynasty of Kosala, was an important figure of
his time. During his reign the kingdom attained great glory and
prosperity. The Malla kingdom also figured as one of the sixteen
Mahajanapadas with an independent entity and status equal to that of
Koala itself. its chief, Bandhula, was a close ally of Prasenjit as
well as of Mahali, the Linchchhave prince of Vaisalf. The were
deeply influenced by the teachings of two great religious exponents-Mahavira
and Buddha and Jainism and Buddhism found many followers among the
Mallas. The period gave rise to a different culture-that of the
northern black polished ware, as has been revealed by the
excavations conducted at Ajaneraghar, Bhimapurdih, Bijulipur,
Gidabirghar and Masumpur. After Prasenjit, the kingdom of Kosala
began to decline rapidly and the history of this area is shrouded in
obscurity. The existence of numerous ruined forts and other remains
in the district connected with the Bhars and the Cherus in legend
and folklore point to the fact that they might have held domination
over the major part of the district at that time. The Vhars were the
occupants of the western part of the district. According to local
legend, the heaps of broken earthen bricks in the parganas of
Lakhnesar, Bhadaon and Sikandrapur, belong to the time of the Bhars.
The Cherus probably ruled over the eastern half of the district.
Kopachit in tahsil Rasra is believed to have been the western limit
of the Cheru dominion. Tradition states that Bansdih lay in the
heart of the Cheru country. Through no remains attributable to the
group are found in Bansdih itself, the remnants of a fort are
pointed out in the neighboring and the now almost deserted village
of Deorhi. A number of places in the Ballia tahsil are also
associated with this group: Karnai is believed to have been
originally owned by the Cherus. Garwar is alleged to have been
founded by them and a small mound near the village and a large brick
mound at Zirabasti are presumed to be the debris of Cheru
strongholds. Extensive ruins at Pakka Kot are also said to be the
debris of a fort and other buildings dating back to the time when
the Cherus ruled the district. Tradition has it that the large
inland lake, the Suhara Tal at Basantpur, was constructed by the
Cherus but no traces are found of any artificial construction. The
significance of the tradition implies how completely the power of
the Cherus has been impressed upon the imagination of the
people. About the middle of the 4th century B.C. the realm of Kosala
was brought to an end by Mahapadma Nanda, who has been described in
the Puranas as the exterminator of the Kshatriya race and who, by
uprooting the Kosalans, extended his empire over the major part of
this region. He was the first great historical emperor of northern
India. But a part of the district under the Mallas did not come
under the domination of this emperor as they saved their authority
and existence by merely accepting the supremacy of the Nandas. The
Nandas were supplanted by the Mauryas under Chandragupta (324-300
B.C.) who ruled over a vast empire and the district became a part of
the Maurya dominion except for the portion under the Mallas, which
remained independent. Kautilya, who took a leading part in this
revolution, mentions in his Arthsastra that this republic was a
Samgha, or a state in a federation. He enjoins upon Chandragupua
Maurya to cultivate friendship with the Mallas: “It is better to
have a Samgha on your side than to acquire an army or to secure an
ally.” The most illustrious king of this dynasty was Asoka (273-236
B.C.), Chandragupta's grandson who became a Buddhist and combined in
himself the zeal of a monk with the wisdom of a king. The
excavations have laid bare the remains of a stupa at Ballia and the
ruins of Buddhist monasteries here and at Barhmaian. The latter has
remains of old walls and very large bricks measuring about 45 cm.
long, 23 cm. broad and 11 cm. in height and many carved and
ornamental specimens . With the fall of the Mauryas a new dynasty,
that of the Sungas, came to power under Pushyamitra (187-151 B.C.)
whose dominion covered only the central portion of the Maurya
empire. The fact is confirmed by an inscription found at Ayodhua,
describing him as the lord of Kosala. As he uprooted the Malla
republic, the whole of the area covered by the district came under
his sway. During his reign, the Greeks of Bactria invaded India and
it is likely the district also suffered the effects of the invasion
of Menander, who carried his arms as for as Madhyamika, Saketa and
Pataliputra. The history of the district in the era immediately
following the fall of the Sungas is shrouded in obscurity till the
advent of the Kushanas. That Ballia became a part of the Kushana
dominion is undoubted as evinced by the finding of a large number of
coins mostly of this periods in the ruins of Khaira Dih. The large
bricks (measuring 60 cm. by 45 13 cm.) found in the ruins are a
witness to the antiquity and the prosperity of the place. After the
dismemberment of the Kushana empire, the history of Ballia is mostly
enveloped in darkness, But a glimpse of the history of the district
is provided by a number of inscribed coins, found at the ancient
city of Ayodhya, of certain rulers such as Satyamitrta, Ayumitra (or
Aryamitra) Sanghamitra, Vijayamitra, Devamitra, Ajavarman and
Kumudasena, who appear to have flourished, after the end of Kushana
rule, in what is now eastern Uttar Pradesh, including the area then
covered by district Ballia. Of these Kumudasena alone was called a
raja. It is surmised that the Guptas, probably Samudragupta,
conquered this region and annexed it to the empire, in the fourth
century A.D. During the reign of his son, Chandragupta II (380-413)
the celebrated Chinese (Buddhist) pilgrim, Fa-hien (400-411) came to
India to pay homage to the holy places of Buddhism. He mentions that
on his way from Kasi to Patliputra, he came across a Buddhist
monastery and a Buddhist temple (in Ballia) which bore the name
of ‘the vast solitude'. The Indian name is not given but the literal
translation of the term used is Vrihadaranya or Bidaran. The decline
of the Gupta empire was precipitated by the assumption of
independence by its feudatories. About the beginning of the second
quarter of the sixth century, Yashodharman of Malwa overran the
whole of northern India and Ballia seems to have come under his
meteoric sovereignty after which it passed under the rule of the
Maukharis of Kannauj. They established an empire comprising the
whole of modern Uttar Pradesh in addition to a large part of Magadha.
Thus the glory of Magadha was eclipsed with the rising power of
Kannauj. The Maukharis were subdued by Harsha Varhsana (606-647) who
established an extensive empire, the district continuing to form
part of the Varshana empire During his reign Hiuen Tsang (629-644)
another famous Chinese pilgrim and a Buddhist monk, came from China
and passed through this district on his way from Varanasi to Nepal,
He describes the Buddhist monastery of Aviddhakarba which he calls
A-pi-te-ka-la-na Sangharama (the monastery of the brethren with
unpierced ears) situated close to the town of Ballia. According to
him this monastery had been built for the use of Buddhist pilgrims,
From there he went to the temple of narayana, which he describes as
being of two storeys with halls and terraces beautifully adorned
with the most marvelous sculptures in stone with stone images in the
highest style of art. Carlleyle identifies the ruins of an ancient
temple at Narainpur (in thisil Ballia) with the remains of the
temple mentioned above. After the death of Harsha his empire broke
up and anarchy and confusion prevailed for about half a century. The
history of Ballia during the interval between Harsha's death and the
rise of Yashovarman nearly three-quarters of a century later, is
again obscure. He must have reigned in the latter part of the
seventh and the first part of the eighth century A.D. and the
district Ballia is likely to have formed an integral part of his
dominion. After Yashovarman the kingdom of Kannauj (which included
modern utter Pradesh ) was a dependency of the empire of Dharampala
of Bengal, who nominated Chakrayudha as the ruler of Kannauj but who
was to be directly subordinate to him In the first of the ninth
century, probably soon after the capture of Kannauj by Naghbhatta II
, it came under the sway of the rising power of the Gujrat
Pratiharas of whom Bhoja was the strongest ruler in northern India.
He maintained peace in his kingdom and defended it against external
dangers but the power of the Gurjara Pratiharas began to decline in
the latter half of the tenth century and was brought to an end by
Mahmud of Ghani's invasion in 1018 A.D.The downfall of the Gurjara Pratiharas
was followed by a period of chaos which came to an end only in the
last decade of the 11th century by the establishment of the
Gahadvala dynasty at Kannauj under Chandradeva. The only reference
of this suzerainty is that he was the protector of the holy places
of Kasi (varanasi), Kusika (Kannauj) , Uttarakosala(Ayadhya) and the
city of Indra (Ancient Delhi). It will thus be seen that
Chandradeva's jurisdiction comprised almost the whole of what is now
Uttar Pradesh Therefore it may be presumed that the district of
Ballia was also under his control . Reference to a Rajpu raja of
Haldi , Ramdeo, who was installed in the 11th and 12th centuries
A.D. show that some parts of the district were subjugated by local
chiefs
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