The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s1.t3.1

c5.s1.t3.1

The district of Kabul is first mentioned by Ptolemy, who calls the people *Kabolitæ*, and their capital *Kabura*, which was also named *Ortospana*. The latter name alone is found in Strabo and Pliny, with a record of its distance from the capital of Arachosia, as measured by Alexander's surveyors, Diognetes and Baiton. In some copies of Pliny the name is written *Orthospanum*, which, with a slight alteration to *Orthostana*, as suggested by H. H. Wilson,[*] is most probably the Sanskrit *Urddhasthána*, that is, the "high place," or lofty city. The same name is also given to the Kabul district by the Chinese pilgrim Hwen Thsang. But I strongly suspect that there has been some accidental interchange of names between the province and its capital. On leaving Ghazni, the pilgrim travelled to the north for 500 *li*, or 83 miles, to *Fo-li-shi-sa-tang-na*, of which the capital was *Hu-phi-na*. Now by two different measured routes the distance between Ghazni and Kabul was found to be 81 and 88½ miles.[†] There can be no doubt, therefore, that Kabul must be the place that was visited by the pilgrim. In another place the capital is said to be 700 *li*, or 116 miles, from Bamian, which agrees very well with the measured distance of 104 miles[‡] between Bamian and Kabul, along the shortest route.