The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s1.t10.12

c5.s1.t10.12

Hwen Thsang next visited *So-lo-tu-lo*, or Sálátura, the birthplace of the celebrated grammarian Pânini, which he says was 20 *li*, or 3⅓ miles, to the north-west of Ohind. In January, 1848, during a day's halt at the village of *Lahor*, which is exactly four miles to the north-east of Ohind, I procured several Greek and Indo-Scythian coins, from which it may be inferred, with some certainty, that the place is at least as old as the time of Pânini himself, or about B.C. 350. I have, therefore, no hesitation in identifying Sâlâtura with Lahor. The loss of the first syllable of the name is satisfactorily accounted for by the change of the palatal sibilant to the aspirate, according to the well-known usage of the people of western India, by whom the Sindhu river was called Hendhu and Indus, and the people on its banks Hindus or Indians; Sâlâtura would, therefore, have become Hálátura and Alátur, which might easily have been corrupted to Lahor; or, as General Court writes the name, to Lavor.