The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s4.t3.11

c5.s4.t3.11

From Jhelam to Jalâlpur the course of the river is from north-east to south-west, between two nearly parallel ranges of mountains, which are generally known as the Tila and Pabhi Hills. The Tila range, which is about thirty miles in length, occupies the west bank from the great east bend of the river below Mangala, to the bed of the Bunhâr river, 12 miles to the north of Jalâlpur. Tila means simply a "peak or hill," and the full name is Gorakhnâth-ka-Tila. The more ancient name was *Bálnáth-ka-Tila*. Both of these are derived from the temple on the summit, which was formerly dedicated to the sun, as *Bálnáth*, but is now devoted to the worship of *Gorakhnáth*, a form of Siva. The latter name, however, is very recent, as Mogal Beg, who surveyed the country between A.D. 1784 and 1794, calls the hill “*Jogion-di-Tibi*, or tower of the Jogis, whose chief is called *Bilnát*.” Abul Fazl* also mentions the “Cell of Balnât,” and the attendant Jogis, or devotees, from whom the hill is still sometimes called *Jogi-tila*. But the name of Bâlnâth is most probably even older than the time of Alexander, as Plutarch† relates that, when Porus was assembling his troops to oppose Alexander, the royal elephant rushed up a hill sacred to the Sun, and in human accents exclaimed, “O great king, who art descended from Gegasios, forbear all opposition to Alexander, for Gegasios himself was also of the race of Jove.”