The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s1.t1.7

c5.s1.t1.7

who describes it as “distinguished by its huge artificial mounds, from which, at various times, copious antique treasures have been extracted.” In another place * he notes that “it possesses many vestiges of antiquity; yet, as they are exclusively of a sepulchral or religious character, the site of the city, to which they refer, may rather be looked for at the actual village of Malik Hupiân on the plain below, and near Charikâr.” Masson writes the name Hupiân, following the emperor Baber; but as it is entered in Walker’s large map as Opiyán, after Lieutenant Leach, and is spelt Opián by Lieutenant Sturt, both of whom made regular surveys of the Koh-dâman, I adopt the unaspirated reading, as it agrees better with the Greek forms of Opiai and Opiane of Hekatæus and Stephanus, and with the Latin form of Opianum of Pliny. As these names are intimately connected with that of the Paropamisan Alexandria, it will clear the way to further investigation, if we first determine the most probable site of this famous city.