The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s2.t5.6

c5.s2.t5.6

According to Hwen Thsang,* the district was 3600 *li*, or 600 miles, in circuit. On the west it was bounded by the Indus, on the north by the southern frontier of Taxila, 120 miles in length, and on the south by the Jhelam and the northern frontier of *Tâki*, or the plains of the Panjâb. It cannot therefore have extended much beyond the foot of the Salt Range. This limit would make the Indus frontier about 60 miles in length, the Jhelam frontier about 50 miles, and the northern and southern frontiers each 120 miles, or altogether 350 miles. The only explanation that occurs to me of the difference between this number and that of Hwen Thsang, is the probability that the ancient *kos* of the Panjâb was the same as the modern one, that is, a short *kos* of 1 9/32 mile, or 1 mile and 2 1/4 furlongs, and that the Chinese pilgrim, ignorant of the difference, made his calculations in the common Indian *kos* of about two miles. This would reduce his numbers by very nearly one-third, and at the same time bring them into close accordance with the actual measurements of our maps. Thus, Hwen Thsang's 3600 *li*, or 600 miles, for the circuit of Singhapura, would become 400 miles, which is within 50 miles of the actual measurement already given. Great accuracy cannot be expected in these estimates of frontier distances, as the pilgrim had no means of checking the numbers of his informants. With the road distances which he had himself travelled it was different, as he could test them by his own knowledge of the time occupied, as well as by the number of journeys between any two points. In the present instance of Singhapura it is quite certain that the frontier distance is exaggerated, as the boundary of *Tsekia*, or *Tâki*, is also said to have extended to the Indus, which could not have been the case if the frontier of Singhapura had stretched further to the south than I have placed it.