The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c2.18

c2.18

From *Drâvida* Hwen Thsang turned his steps to the north, and passing through *Konkana* and *Ma-* 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 *Nálanda* and *Tiladhaka*, 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 *Kámrûp*, or Assam, where he halted for a month. Early in A.D. 643 he was once more at *Pátaliputra*, 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 *Pátaliputra* through *Prayága* and *Kosâmbi* 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 *Jâlandhara*, 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 be performed during the months of December, January and February, before the stream begins to rise from the melted snows. According to my calculations, he crossed the Indus towards the end of A.D. 643. At Utakhanda he halted for fifty days to obtain fresh copies of the manuscripts which had been lost in the Indus, and then proceeded to Lamghân in company with the King of Kapisa. As one month was occupied in this journey, he could not have reached Lamghân until the middle of March, A.D. 644, or about three months before the usual period, when the passes of the Hindu Kush become practicable. This fact is sufficient to account for his sudden journey of fifteen days to the south to the district of Falana, or Banu, from whence he reached Kapisa viâ Kâbul and Ghazni about the beginning of July. Here he again halted to take part in a religious assembly, so that he could not have left Kapisa until about the middle of July A.D. 644, or just fourteen years after his first entry into India from Bamian. From Kapisa he passed up the Panjshir valley and over the Khâwak Pass to Anderâb, where he must have arrived about the end of July. It was still early for the easy crossing of this snowy pass, and the pilgrim accordingly notices the frozen streams and beds of ice which he encountered on his passage over the mountain. Towards the end of the year he passed through Kâshgâr, Yârkand, and Kotan, and at last, in the spring of A.D. 645, he arrived in safety in the western capital of China.