PA LASPAR1 355
the Ponwar house of Chandravati. Afterwards falling waste, it was in
the fourteenth century repeopled by Palansi Chauhan, from whom
it takes its present name. Palanpur contains a hospital, a school, and
a library.
Palar (or Kshira-nadi, the ` milk river').-A river of Southern
India, which has its reputed source on Nandidroog, in the Kolar
District of Mysore. From near Kaivara it turns south-east and leaves
Mysore in the east of the Bowringpet tdluk (Kolar). Entering the
North Arcot District of Madras it bends to the north-east after
descending the Ghats, and flows into the Bay of Bengal near Sadras
(Chingleput District). Its length in Mysore is about 47 miles, the
entire drainage of the catchment basin, 1,036 square miles, being
utilized for cultivation. Of the tanks on it, the largest are Betamangala
and Ramasagara in the Bowringpet tdluk, the former being the source
of water-supply for the Kolar Gold Fields. In Madras the length of the
river is about 183 miles. There is some reason to believe that it once
flowed to the sea from the valley through which now runs the Kortta-
laiyar, a stream which reaches the Bay of Bengal to the north of
Madras City.
The chief tributaries of the Palar are the Ponne, which joins it on
the left bank in North Arcot, and the Cheyyar, which joins it on the
other bank in Chingleput District. On its banks are the towns of
Vaniyambadi, Vellore, Arcot, and Chingleput. The first of these was
greatly damaged by a sudden flood which swept down the river in
1903, causing the loss of hundreds of lives. Near Arcot the river is
crossed by a dam built in 1857, and designed to give an improved
supply to the old native channels which fed a large series of reservoirs
in those parts. It was breached in 1874, but was subsequently restored,
and is now 2,634 feet in length. The dam and the improved channels
cost 21 lakhs and add to the supply of about 270 existing reservoirs,
some of which are in Chingleput District; but they do not water any
great extent: of fresh land, and if the receipts from the irrigation which
existed before they were constructed be deducted they are worked at
a great loss. In Chingleput District about 50,ooo acres are watered
from the river, which feeds a series of tanks.
The Palar is crossed by railway bridges at Mailpati (North Arcot
District), and between Padalam and Kolatur in Chingleput.
Palasbari-Village in the Gauhati subdivision of Kamrup Dis-
trict, Eastern Bengal and Assam, situated in 26° 8' N. and 91° 32' E.,
on the south bank of the Brahmaputra, 15 miles west of Gauhati town.
The Marwari merchants of the place purchase lac and a little cotton
from the hill tribes, and mustard seed, rice, silk, and a little jute from
the villagers of the neighbourhood. There is a flourishing market, in
which all sorts of country produce, especially poultry and vegetables,
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