named Opiane. This fact being established, I will now proceed to show that the position of Alexandria Opiane agrees as nearly as possible with the site of the present Opiân, near Charikâr.

As the

According to Pliny, the city of Alexandria, in Opianum, was situated at 50 Roman miles, or 45.96 English miles, from Ortospana, and at 237 Roman miles, or 217.8 English miles, from Peucolaitis, or Pukkalaoti, which was a few miles to the north of Peshâwar. position of Ortospana will be discussed in my account of the next province, I will here only state that I have identified it with the ancient city of Kabul and its citadel, the Bala Hisar. Now Charikâr is 27 miles to the north of Kabul, which differs by 19 miles from the measurement recorded by Pliny. But as immediately after the mention of this distance he adds that "in some copies different numbers are found," I am inclined to read "triginta millia," or 30 miles, instead of "quinquaginta millia," which is found in the text. This would reduce the distance to 27 English miles, which exactly accords with the measurement between Kabul and Opiân. The distance between these places is not given by the Chinese pilgrim Hwen Thsang; but that between the capital of Kiapishe and Pu-lu-sha-pu-lo, or Purushapura, the modern Peshawar, is stated at 600+100+500 =1200 li, or just 200 miles according to my estimate of 6 li to the English mile. The last distance of 500 li, between Nagarahâra and Purushâwar, is certainly too short, as the earlier pilgrim, Fa Hian, in the begin

Measured by Lieutenant Sturt with a perambulator. Masson gives the same distance for Begrâm. See No. III. Map from Sturt's Survey. † Hist. Nat., vi. 21. "In quibusdam exemplaribus diversi numeri reperiuntur."

hundred elephants." The prince here mentioned is the well-known Chandra Gupta Maurya, whose grandson Asoka dispatched missionaries to the most distant parts of his empire for the propagation of Buddhism. Alasadda, or Alexandria ad Caucasum, the capital of the Yona, or Greek country, is recorded as one of these distant places; and as the Chinese pilgrim Hwen Thsang notices several stupas in that neighbourhood as the work of Asoka, we have the most satisfactory proofs of the Indian occupation of the Kabul valley in the third and fourth centuries before Christ. The completeness of this occupation is well shown by the use of the Indian language on the coins of the Bactrian Greeks and Indo-Scythians, down to A.D. 100, or perhaps even later; and although it is lost for the next two or three centuries, it again makes its appearance on the coins of the Abtelites, or White Huns, of the sixth century. In the following century, as we learn from the Chinese pilgrim, the king of Kapisa was a Kshatriya, or pure Hindu. During the whole of the tenth century the Kabul valley was held by a dynasty of Brahmans, whose power was not finally extinguished until towards the close of the reign of Mahmud Ghaznavi. Down to this time, therefore, it would appear that a great part of the population of eastern Afghanistan, including the whole of the Kabul valley, must have been of Indian descent, while the religion was pure Buddhism. During the rule of the Ghaznavis, whose late conversion to Muhammadanism had only added bigotry to their native ferocity, the persecution of idol-loving Buddhists was a pleasure as well as a duty. The idolaters were soon driven out, and with them the Indian element, which had subsisted for

the inscriptions of Darius, but we have instead a nation called Thatagush, who are the Suttagudai of Herodotus, and perhaps also the people of Si-pi-to-fa-la-sse of the Chinese pilgrim Hwen Thsang.* This place was only 40 li, or about 7 miles, distant from the capital of Kiapishe, but unfortunately the direction is not stated. As, however, it is noted that there was a mountain named Aruna at a distance of 5 miles to the south, it is almost certain that this city must have been on the famous site of Begrâm, from which the north end of the Siah-koh, or Black Mountain, called Chehel Dukhtarán, or the "Forty Daughters," lies almost due south at a distance of 5 or 6 miles. It is possible, also, that the name of Tátarangzár, which Masson gives to the south-west corner of the ruins of Begrâm, may be an altered form of the ancient Thátagush, or Sattagudai. But whether this be so or not, it is quite certain that the people dwelling on the branches of the Kabul river must be the Thấtagush of Darius, and the Sattagudai of Herodotus, as all the other surrounding nations are mentioned in both authorities.

upper

Karsana, Kartana or Tetragonis.

The passage of Pliny describing the position of Alexandria is prefaced by a few words regarding the town of Cartana, which, while they assign it a similar position at the foot of the Caucasus, seem also to refer it to the immediate vicinity of Alexander's city. I quote the whole passage, with the correction which I

* Sipitofalasse is probably the Sanskrit Saptavarsha or Sattavasa, which might easily be changed to Thatagush.

have already proposed:*" Cartana oppidum sub Caucaso, quod postea Tetragonis dictum. Hæc regio est ex adverso Bactria. Opiorum (regio) deinde cujus oppidum Alexandria a conditore dictum." "At the foot of the Caucasus stands the town of Cartana, which was afterwards called Tetragonis (or the Square). This district is opposite to Bactria. Next (to it) are the Opii, whose city of Alexandria was named after its founder." Solinus makes no mention of Cartana, but Ptolemy has a town named Karsana, or Karnasa, which he places on the right bank of a nameless river that comes from the vicinity of Kapisa and Niphanda (or Opiân), and joins the river of Locharna, or Lohgarh, nearly opposite Nagara. This stream I take to be the united Panjshir and Ghorband river, which joins the Lohgarh river about halfway between Kabul and Jalâlâbâd. This identification is rendered nearly certain by the position assigned to the Lambata, or people of Lampaka or Lamghan, who are placed to the east of the nameless river, which cannot therefore be the Kunar river, as might otherwise have been inferred from its junction with the Lohgarh river opposite Nagara.

This being the case, the Karsana of Ptolemy may at once be identified with the Cartana of Pliny; and the few facts related by both authors may be combined to aid us in discovering its true position. According to Pliny, it was situated at the foot of the Caucasus, and not far from Alexandria; whilst, according to Ptolemy, it was on the right bank of the Panjshir river. These data point to Begrâm, which is situated on the right bank of the united Panjshir and Ghorband rivers, immediately at the foot of the Kohistan *Hist. Nat., vi. 23.