Belâ.
The goddess Belâ was the sister of Lakhana Deva, whose story has been already told. Once, the story goes, Siva went to pay a visit to Hastinapura, and the bell of his bull Nandi disturbed the brothers Arjuna and Bhîma, who, thinking the god a wandering beggar, drove him out of the palace. Then he cursed the Râjput race that among them should be born two fatal women, who should work the ruin of their power. So first was born Draupadî, who caused the war of the Mahâbhârata, and after her Belâ, to whom was due the unhappy warfare which paved the way to the Musalmân invasion. Belâ now has a famous temple at Belaun on the banks of the Ganges in Bulandshahr.
We shall come elsewhere on instances of the belief that human beings were sacrificed under the foundations of important buildings. Nathu Kahâr, the godling of the Oudh boatmen, is said to have been buried alive under the foundations of the fort of Akbarpur in the Faizâbâd District, where a fair is held in his honour.48 At the last census one hundred and twenty-four thousand persons recorded themselves as his votaries.