The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s1.t11.40

c5.s1.t11.40

The great city now called Peshâwar is first mentioned by Fa-Hian, in A.D. 400, under the name of *Fo-leu-sha*.* It is next noticed by Sung-Yun in A.D. 502, at which time the king of Gândhâra was at war with the king of Kipin, or Kophene, that is Kabul and Ghazni, and the surrounding districts. Sung-Yun does not name the city, but he calls it the capital, and his description of its great stupa of king Kia-ni-sse-kia, or Kanishka, is quite sufficient to establish its identity.† At the period of Hwen Thsang’s visit, in A.D. 630, the royal family had become extinct, and the kingdom of Gândhâra was a dependency of Kapisa or Kabul. But the capital which Hwen Thsang calls *Pu-lu-sha-pu-lo*, or *Parasháwara*, was still a great city of 40 *li*, or 6⅔ miles, in extent.‡ It is next mentioned by Masudi and Abu Rihân, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, under the name of *Parasháwar*, and again by Baber, in the sixteenth century, it is always called by the same name throughout his commentaries. Its present name we owe to Akbar, whose fondness for innovation led him to change the ancient *Parasháwar*, of which he did not know the meaning, to *Pesháwar*, or the "frontier town." Abul Fazl gives both names.*