The Reference of Bhavabhuti :- The scene of Malati and Madhava of the drama of Bhavabhuti is laid in the city of Padmavati amidst the Vindhya Mountains. Bhavabhuti has described the city of Padmavati as where the Para and the Sandhu winds flow.

“How wide the prospect spreads- mountain and rock,
Towns, villages, and woods, and glittering streams,
There where the Para and the Sandhu wind,
The towers, and temples, pinnacles, and gates,
And spires of Padmavati, like a city
Precipitated from the skies appear
Inverted in the pure translucent wave!
There flows Lavana’s frolic stream”
“Where meet the Sindhu and the Madhumati,
The holy fane of Swarna-vindu rises”

The Sindhu of the above passage is identified with the Sindh river on which Narwar is situated; and the Para is the Parbati or the Para river, which flows only five miles to the North of the Sindh; and the Lavana is the Lun or the Nun Nadi, which rises near Paniar and falls into the Sindh at Chandpur-Sonari. The Madhumati is identified with the Mohwar or Madhuwar, which rises near Ranod, and after passing Karara falls into the Sindhu about 8 miles from Sonari. The identification of these four rivers in the immediate vicinity of Narwar with that of the play of Bhavabhuti, illustrated that Narwar was the same site of the ancient Padmavati.

Later, the Site of Padmavati was identified at Pawaya village in Gwalior district.

To be continued..............