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The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s2.t2: 2. Urasa.

The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s2.t2

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2. Urasa.

c5.s2.t2.1

Between Taxila and Kashmir Hwen Thsang places the district of *U-la-shi*, or *Urasa*, which, from its position, may at once be identified with the *Varsa Regio* of Ptolemy, and with the modern district of *Rash*, in Dhan-tâwar, to the west of Muzafarâbâd. It is mentioned in the native chronicle of Kashmir† as a mountainous district in the vicinity of the valley, where Raja *Sang-kara Varmma* received his death wound in A.D. 901. It corresponds exactly with the Pakhali of Abul Fazl, which included all the hilly country between the Indus and Kashmir, as far south as the boundary of Attak. At the present day the principal towns of the district are *Mánsera*, in the north-east; *Noshahra*, in the middle; and *Kishangarh*, or *Haripur*, in the south-west. In Hwen Thsang’s time the capital is said to have been either 300 or 500 *li*, that is, 50 or 83 miles, distant from Taxila. This difference in the distance makes it impossible to identify the actual position of the capital in the seventh century; but it seems probable that it must have been at Mángali, which is said by the people to have been the ancient capital of the district. This place stands midway between Noshahra and Mânsera, and about 50 miles to the north-east of Taxila.

c5.s2.t2.2

∗ ‘Raja Tarangini,’ v. 44.

c5.s2.t2.3

† *Ibid.*, v. 216.

c5.s2.t2.4

According to Hwen Thsang, Urasa was 2000 *li*, or 333 miles, in circuit, which is probably correct, as its length from the source of the Kunihâr river to the Gandgarh mountain is not less than 100 miles, and its breadth from the Indus to the Behat, or Jhelam, is 55 miles in its narrowest part. Its distance from Kashmir is stated at 1000 *li*, or 167 miles, which would place the capital somewhere in the neighbourhood of Noshahra, and within a few miles of Mângala, which was the ancient capital according to the traditions of the people.

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