háráshtra arrived at Bhároch on the Narbada, from whence, after visiting Ujain and Balabhi and several smaller states, he reached Sindh and Multân towards the end of A.D. 641. He then suddenly returned to Magadha, to the great monasteries of Nalanda and Tiladḥaka, where he remained for two months for the solution of some religious doubts by a famous Buddhist teacher named Prajnabhadra. He next paid a second visit to Kamrup, or Assam, where he halted for a month. Early in A.D. 643 he was once more at Pataliputra, where he joined the camp of the great king Harsha Varddhana, or Silâditya, the paramount sovereign of northern India, who was then attended by eighteen tributary princes, for the purpose of adding dignity to the solemn performance of the rites of the Quinquennial Assembly. The pilgrim marched in the train of this great king from Páṭaliputra through Prayaga and Kosambi to Kanoj. He gives a minute description of the religious festivals that were held at these places, which is specially interesting for the light which it throws on the public performance of the Buddhist religion at that particular period. At Kanoj he took leave of Harsha Varddhana, and resumed his route to the north-west in company with Raja Udhita of Jalandhara, at whose capital he halted for one month. In this part of his journey his progress was necessarily slow, as he had collected many statues and a large number of religious books, which he carried with him on baggage elephants.* Fifty of his manuscripts were lost on crossing over the Indus at Utakhanda, or Ohind. The pilgrim himself forded the river on an elephant, a feat which can only * M. Julien's Hiouen Thsang,' i. 262, 263. THE ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA. FROM the accounts of the Greeks it would appear that the ancient Indians had a very accurate knowledge of the true shape and size of their country. According to Strabo,* Alexander "caused the whole country to be described by men well acquainted with it ;" and this account was afterwards lent to Patrokles by Xenokles, the treasurer of the Syrian kings. Patrokles himself held the government of the north-east satrapies of the Syrian empire under Seleukus Nikator and Antiochus Soter, and the information which he collected regarding India and the Eastern provinces, has received the approbation of Eratosthenes and Strabo for its accuracy. Another account of India was derived from the register of the Stathmi,† or "Marches" from place to place, which was prepared by the Macedonian Geographia, ii. 1, 6. Strabo, x. 1, 11. The name of the author of the Stathmi' is preserved by Athenæus, i. 103. The original measurements were most probably made by Diognetus and Baiton, whose duty it was to ascertain the distances and lengths of Alexander's expeditions. See Plin. Hist. Nat., vi. 21. B never been surpassed. Buchanan Hamilton's survey of the country was much more minute, but it was limited to the lower provinces of the Ganges in northern India and to the district of Mysore in southern India. Jacquemont's travels were much less restricted; but as that sagacious Frenchman's observations were chiefly confined to geology and botany and other scientific subjects, his journeyings in India have added but little to our knowledge of its geography. My own travels also have been very extensive throughout the length and breadth of northern India, from Peshawar and Multan near the Indus, to Rangoon and Prome on the Irawadi, and from Kashmir and Ladâk to the mouth of the Indus and the banks of the Narbada. Of southern India I have seen nothing, and of western India I have seen only Bombay, with the celebrated caves of Elephanta and Kanhari. But during a long service of more than thirty years in India, its early history and geography have formed the chief study of my leisure hours; while for the last four years of my residence these subjects were my sole occupation, as I was then employed by the Government of India as Archæological Surveyor, to examine and report upon the antiquities of the country. The favourable opportunity which I thus enjoyed for studying its geography was used to the best of my ability; and although much still remains to be discovered I am glad to be able to say that my researches were signally successful in fixing the sites of many of the most famous cities of ancient India. As all of these will be described in the following account, I will notice here only a few of the more prominent of my discoveries, for the purpose of Roman miles, which are equal to 678 British miles. The eastern coast from the mouth of the Ganges to Cape Comorin was reckoned at 16,000 stadia, or 1838 British miles; and the southern (or south-western) coast, from Cape Comorin to the mouth of the Indus at 3000 stadia more* than the northern side, or 19,000 stadia, equivalent to 2183 British miles. The close agreement of these dimensions, given by Alexander's informants, with the actual size of the country is very remarkable, and shows that the Indians, even at that early date in their history, had a very accurate knowledge of the form and extent of their native land. On the west, the course of the Indus from Ohind, above Attok, to the sea is 950 miles by land, or about 1200 miles by water. On the north, the distance from the banks of the Indus to Patna, by our military route books, is 1143 miles, or only 6 miles less than the measurement of the royal road from the Indus to Palibothra, as given by Strabo on the authority of Megasthenes. Beyond this, the distance was estimated by the voyages of vessels on the Ganges at 6000 stadia, or 689 British miles, which is only 9 miles in excess of the actual length of the river route. From the mouth of the Ganges to Cape Comorin the distance, measured on the map, is 1600 miles, but taking into account the numerous indentations of the coast-line, the length should probably be increased in the same proportion as road distance by one-sixth. This would make the actual length 1866 miles. Comorin to the mouth of the Indus there is a consi From Cape * Strabo, xv. 1, 11. 'Each of the greater sides exceeding the opposite by 3000 stadia." (Falconer's translation.), |