Washim is a place with antiquity and according to some scholars, it is the place where Vatsa rishi performed penance and where many Gods came to bless him as a result of which it came to be known as Vatsagulma. Its mention as Vatsagulma is traced in Padma. In the Treta Yuga, the second age, this country was a part of the Dandakaranya, or Dandaka jungle, and the rishi Vatsa had his ashram hermitage, here; his religious merit acquired by austerities, was such that consternation spread through the world; rivers ran dry and trees were withered, and even the gods were afraid. They came, therefore in a body to Bashim and took up a temporary residence at various places within a radius of 5 miles from the town. Shiva, alone, whose devotee Vatsa had proclaimed himself, went directly to the rishi whom he found absorbed in penance. At the sight of his virtue Shiva was so much overcome that he wept, and the tears filled a dry well at his feet and flowed forth as the river Karuna; then he promised to grant any boon Vatsa might ask for. The latter asked that Shiva should remain for ever at the rishi's abode to save his worshippers from affliction. Shiva granted this, and his linga remained there in consequence. Then the other gods appeared in a single gathering (gulma) and promised to stay in their divine essence, ansharupa, at the various places at which they had halted; and so the neighbourhood is called 'Vatsa Gulmaehi Pacha Koshi', the Five Kos of the Vatsa Gathering, and is considered a kshetra, sacred area. About the origin of the name Bashim or Washim the old Gazetteer has given the following information. A poor Brahmin orphan was protected by a learned member of the caste, but after some time stole a necklace belonging to his protector's wife. In the morning when she bewailed her loss he repented and sought to restore the necklace but could not find it. Meanwhile the woman laid on the unknown thief the curse that he should suffer from a loathsome disease and his body
