Pushkara

Pushkara is a sacred place whose geographical identity remains uncertain in the accompanying commentary. It is associated with an early named pilgrimage site, but the note distinguishes that ancient identification from the modern Pushkara near Ajmere rather than treating them as definitively identical.

Location and Sacred Status

One annotation places Pushkara near the modern city of Ajmere and says the place remains sacred, with its name preserved in Hindi. This account gives the site a continuing presence in the landscape: Pushkara is not only a name in an old narrative, but also a place associated with living sacred geography.

Competing Identifications

The commentary also reports Lassen’s objection to identifying the ancient Pushkala or Pushkara with the modern Pushkara near Ajmere. In Lassen’s account, the ancient place was known to Greek writers as Peucelitis and was the earliest pilgrimage place mentioned by name. The note therefore preserves competing geographical claims: proximity to Ajmere on one hand, and a distinction between the ancient pilgrimage site and the modern namesake on the other.

Significance and Limits

Pushkara’s significance here lies partly in this unresolved identification. The name connects epic-era sacred geography with later place-names and pilgrimage traditions, while the commentary cautions against collapsing those layers into a single certain location. The evidence establishes the site’s sacred association and the disagreement over its location, but does not securely identify it as the setting of a particular episode.