The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s3.t6.3

c5.s3.t6.3

The present ruins of Sarhind consist almost entirely of Muhammadan buildings of a late period; but it must have been a place of some consequence in the time of the Hindus, as it was besieged and captured by Muhammad Ghori, the first Mussulman king of Delhi.† The name of *Sarhind*, or "frontier of Hind" is popularly said to have been given to the city at an earlier period, when it was the boundary town between the Hindus and the later Muhammadan kingdom of Ghazni and Lahor. But the name is probably much older, as the astronomer Varâha Mihira mentions the *Sairindhas** immediately after the *Kulûtas*, or people of Kullu, and just before *Brahmapura*, which, as we learn from the Chinese pilgrim, was the capital of the hill country to the north of Haridwâr. The *Sairindhas*, or people of *Sirindha*, must, therefore, have occupied the very tract of country in which the present Sarhind is situated, and there can be little doubt that the two names are the same. But the geographical list of Varâha Mihira is copied almost *verbatim* from that of the still earlier astronomer Parâsara, who is believed to have flourished not later than the first century after Christ.†