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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 6, p. 217.

BAIR AT 217 disputed. Formerly attributed to the early part of the ninth century, they are assigned by a recent investigator to a period three or four centuries later. One of these temples was seriously damaged by the earthquake of April 4, 1905. [Epigraphia Indica, vol. i, pp. 97-119; Journal, Royal Asiatic Society (1903), p. i6, note.] BaijnFth.-Village in the District and tahsil of Almora, United Provinces, situated in 29° 55' N. and 79° 37' E., on a cart-road from Kathgodam. Population (900o), 148. Baijnath lies in the centre of the Katyur valley, and was formerly known as Karttikeyapura, a capital of the Katyuri Rajas. On a neighbouring hill stands an old temple, sacred to Kali, at which kids and buffalo calves are sacrificed to the goddess, especially at the Dasahra. Other old temples are to be seen in the valley, and some copperplates are preserved; inscriptions found here yield a series of dates from A.D. I202. The valley now contains several tea plantations. A dispensary is maintained at Baijnath. Baikal.-Village in South Kanara District, Madras. See BEKAL. Bairagnia.-Village in the Sitamarhi subdivision of Muzaffarpur District, Bengal, situated in 26° 44' N. and 85° 20' E., on the east bank of the Lal Bakya river, on the Nepal frontier. Population (I90o), 2,405. Bairagnia, which is the terminus of a branch of the Bengal and North-Western Railway, is a large grain and oilseed d6p6t of growing importance, where the dealers of the plains meet the hillmen and the Nepal trade changes hands. Bairat (Vairata).-Head-quarters of the tahsil of the same name in the Torawati nizamat of the State of Jaipur, Rajputana, situated in 270 27' N. and 760 12' E., about 42 miles north-by-north-east of Jaipur city. Population (1901), 5,637. The place contains a vernacular middle school attended by 138 boys, and an elementary indigenous school. Bairat is of very great antiquity, two inscriptions of the time of Asoka (250 B.c.) having been found within a mile of the town, besides copper coins believed to be of an even earlier date. It has been identified as the capital of the old province of Matsya, celebrated in Hindu legends as the abode of the five Pandavas during their exile of twelve years from Delhi. The earliest historical notice of the place is that of the Chinese pilgrim, Hiuen Tsiang, in A.D. 634; he mentions the existence of eight Buddhist monasteries, but found them much ruined and the number of monks small. In the beginning of the eleventh century Mahmud of Ghazni invaded the country and sacked the town, which is said to have remained more or less deserted for about 500 years - but it was certainly in existence in Akbar's time, as it is mentioned in the Ain-i-Akbari as possessing very profitable copper- mines. The latter have not been worked for many years. [Archaeological Survey of iNorlhern India, vols. ii and vi.]