A city mentioned several times in puranas.

In the Puruvansh, there was once a king named Kusha. Kusha had four sons with the princess of Vidarbha – Kushamba, Kushanabha, Asurtarajas, Vasu. As per their father’s instructions, each of them built a city and started living there. Kushamba built Kaushambi, Kushanabha Mahodayapura, Asurtarajas Dharmaranya and Vasu Girivraja as per Ramayana Balakanda Sarga 32.

Vasu’s son was Brihadratha and his son was Jarasandha. During Jarasandha’s time, it was a resplendent city nestled between five mountains as per Mahabharata Sabhaparva Chapter 21. Jarasandha imprisoned several other kings here. Once, because of his hatred towards Krishna, he swung his mace a 100 times and threw it at Mathura. Krishna, Arjuna and Bhima entered Girivraja in disguise and succeeded in killing Jarasandha. They installed his son as king as per Mahabharata Sabhaparva Chapter 24.

Once the king Dhundhumara gave up the blessings of gods and slept here, as per Mahabharata Anushasanaparva Chapter 6 verse 39.