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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.s4.t6: Sákala, or Sangala.

The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s4.t6

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Sákala, or Sangala.

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The *Sangala* of Alexander has long ago been recognized in the *Sákala* of the Brahmans and the *Sâgal* of the Buddhists; but its position would still perhaps have remained undetermined, had it not fortunately been visited by the Chinese pilgrim Hwen Thsang in A.D. 630. Both Arrian and Curtius place Sangala to the east of the Hydraotes, or Râvi; but the itinerary of Hwen Thsang shows that it was to the west of the Râvi, and as nearly as possible in the position of the present Sangla-wala-Tiba, or “Sangala Hill.” I first became acquainted with this place in 1839, when I obtained a copy of Mogal Beg’s manuscript map, compiled by Wilford, who has three times described its position in the ‘Asiatic Researches.’* But I was not able to obtain any account of the place until 1854, when I heard from Colonel G. Hamilton, who had visited it, and from Captain Blagrave, who had surveyed it, that Sangala was a real hill with traces of buildings, and with a sheet of water on one side of it. During my tour through the Panjâb, I was able to visit the hill myself, and I am now satisfied that it must be the Sangala of Alexander, although the position does not agree with that which his historians have assigned to it.

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∗ I take *Hairát* to be only an aspirated form of *Arátta*.

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In the time of Hwen Thsang She-kie-lo, or Sákala, was in ruins, and the chief town of the district was Tse-kia, or Chekia, which may also be read as Dhaka or Taka. The pilgrim places this new town at 15 li, or 2½ miles, to the north-east of Sákala; but as all the country within that range is open and flat, it is certain that no town could ever have existed in the position indicated. In the same direction, however, but at 19 miles, or 115 li, I found the ruins of a large town, called Asarur, which accord almost exactly with the pilgrim’s description of the new town of Tse-kia. It is necessary to fix the position of this place, because Hwen Thsang’s measurements, both coming and going, are referred to it and not to Sâkala. From Kashmir the pilgrim proceeded by Punach to Rajapura, a small town in the lower hills, which is now called Rajaori. From thence he travelled to the south-east over a mountain, and across a river called Chen-ta-lo-po-kia, which is the Chandrabhága, or modern Chenâb, to She-ye-pu-lo, or Jayapura (probably Hâfizâbâd), where he slept for the night, and on the next day he reached Tse-kia, the whole distance being 700 li, or 116 miles. As a south-east direction would have taken the pilgrim to the east of the Râvi, we must look for some known point in his subsequent route as the best means of checking this erroneous bearing. This fixed point we find in She-lan-to-lo, the well-known Jálandhara, which the pilgrim places at 500, plus 50, plus 140 or 150 li, or altogether between 690 and 700 li to the east of Tse-kia. This place was, therefore, as nearly as possible, equidistant from Rajaori and Jâlandhar. Now, Asarur is exactly 112 miles distant from each of these places in a direct line drawn on the map, and as it is undoubtedly a very old place of considerable size, I am satisfied that it must be the town of Tse-kia described by Hwen Thsang.

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∗ Vols. v. 282; vi. 520; ix. 53.

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In A.D. 630 the pilgrim found the walls of Sâkala completely ruined, but their foundations still remained, showing a circuit of about 20 li, or 3 1/3 miles. In the midst of the ruins there was still a small portion of the old city inhabited, which was only 6 or 7 li, or just one mile, in circuit. Inside the city there was a monastery of one hundred monks who studied the Hinayâna, or exoteric doctrines of Buddhism, and beside it there was a stupa, 200 feet in height, where the four previous Buddhas had left their footprints.

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At 5 or 6 *li*, or less than 1 mile, to the north-west, there was a second stupa, also about 200 feet high, which was built by King Asoka on the spot where the four previous Buddhas had explained the law.

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*Sánglawála Tiba* is a small rocky hill forming two sides of a triangle, with the open side towards the south-east. The north side of the hill rises to a height of 215 feet, but the north-east side is only 160 feet. The interior area of the triangle slopes gradually down to the south-east till it ends abruptly in a steep bank 32 feet above the ground. This bank was once crowned with a brick wall, which I was able to trace only at the east end, where it joined the rock. The whole area is covered with brick ruins, amongst which I found two square foundations. The bricks are of a very large size, 15 by 9 by 3 inches. During the last fifteen years these bricks have been removed in great numbers. Nearly 4000 were carried to the large village of Marh, 6 miles to the north, and about the same number must have been taken to the top of the hill to form a tower for the survey operations. The base of the hill is from 1700 to 1800 feet on each side, or just 1 mile in circuit. On the east and south sides the approach to the hill is covered by a large swamp, half a mile in length, and nearly a quarter of a mile in breadth, which dries up annually in the summer, but during the seasonal rains has a general depth of about 3 feet. In the time of Alexander this must have been a fine sheet of water, which has been gradually lessened in depth by the annual washings of silt from the hill above. On the north-eastern side of the hill there are the remains of two large buildings, from which I obtained old bricks of the enormous size of 17½ by 11 by 3 inches. Close by there is an old well which was lately cleared out by some of the wandering tribes. On the north-western side, 1000 feet distant, there is a low ridge of rock called *Munda-kapura*, from 25 to 30 feet in height, and about 500 feet in length, which has formerly been covered with brick buildings. At 1¾ mile to the south, there is another ridge of three small hills, called *Arna* and little *Sángala*. All these hills are formed of the same dark grey rock as that of Chanyot and of the Karâna hills to the west of the Chenâb, which contains much iron, but is not worked on account of the want of fuel. The production of iron is noticed by Hwen Thsang.

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In comparing this account with the description of the Chinese pilgrim, I only find two places that can be identified. The first is the site of the modern town, which was about a mile in circuit, and was situated in the midst of the ruins. This I take to be the hill itself, which accords exactly with the description, and which would certainly have been occupied in preference to any part of the open plain below, on account of its security. The second is the stupa of Asoka, which was situated at rather less than 1 mile to the north-west of the monastery inside the town. This I would identify with the low ridge of rock on the north-west called *Mundapapura*, of which the highest point at the north-western end is 4000 feet, or more than three-quarters of a mile distant from the central point of the triangular area of the town. The plain on the north and west sides of the hill is strewn with broken pottery and fragments of brick for a considerable distance, showing that the town must once have extended in both of those directions. But the whole circuit of these remains did not appear to be more than 1½ or 1¼ miles, or about one-half of Hwen Thsang’s measurement.

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The Brahmanical accounts of Sâkala have been collected from the Mahâbhârata by Professor Lassen in his ‘Pentapotamia Indica.’* According to that poem, Sâkala, the capital of the Madras, who are also called Jârtikas and Bâhîkas, was situated on the *Apagâ* rivulet to the west of the *Irâvati*, or Râvi river. It was approached from the east side by pleasant paths through the *Pilu* forest,

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“Sami-pilu kâriranâm vaneshu sukhavartmasu.”

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which Professor Lassen translates “per amœnas sylvarum tramites ambulantes.” But the *Pilu*, or *Salvadora Persica*, is the commonest wood in this part of the Panjâb, and is specially abundant in the Rechna Doâb. In these “pleasant paths” of the *Pilu* forest, the traveller was unfortunately liable to be despoiled of his clothes by robbers. This description by the author of the Mahâbhârata was fully verified by Hwen Thsang in A.D. 630, and again by myself in 1863. On leaving Sâkala, the Chinese pilgrim travelled eastward into a forest of *Po-lo-she* trees, where his party encountered fifty brigands, who robbed them of their clothes.† In November, 1863, I approached Sâkala from the east through a continuous wood of *Pilu* trees, and pitched my tent at the foot of the hill. During the night the tent was three times approached by parties of robbers who were detected by the vigilance of my watch dog. M. Julien has properly rendered Hwen Thsang *Po-lo-she* by *Palása*, the *Butea frondosa*, or *Dhák* tree; but as the forest consisted of *Pilu* trees, both before and after the time of Hwen Thsang, I would suggest the propriety of correcting *Pi-lo-she* to *Pilo*; I conjecture that the Chinese editor of the pilgrim’s life, who was most probably ignorant of the *Pilu*, substituted the well-known *Palása*, which is frequently mentioned by Hwen Thsang, under the belief that he was making an important and necessary correction.

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∗ Pentapot. Ind., pp. 73, 74.

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† ‘Hiouen Thsang,’ i. 97.

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The country is still well known as *Madr-des*, or the district of the *Madras*, which is said by some to extend from the Biâs to the Jhelam, but by others only to the Chenâb. Regarding the *Apagá* rivulet, I believe that it may be recognized in the *Ayak Nadí*, a small stream which has its rise in the Jammu hills to the north-east of Syâlkot. After passing Syâlkot the Ayak runs westerly near Sodhra, where in the rainy season it throws off its superfluous water in the Chenâb. It then turns to the south-south-west past Banka and Nandanwâ to Bhutâla, and continues this same course till within a few miles of Asarur. There it divides into two branches, which, after passing to the east and west of Asarur, rejoin at 2½ miles to the south of *Sángalawála Tíba*. Its course is marked in the revenue survey maps for 15 miles to the south-west of Sângala, where it is called the Nananwâ canal. An intelligent man of Asarur informed me that he had seen the bed of the Nananwâ 20 kos to the south-west, and that he had always heard that it fell into the Râvi a long way off. This, then, must be Arrian’s “small rivulet” near which Alexander pitched his camp, at 100 stadia, or 11½ miles, to the east of the Akesines, below its junction with the Hydaspes.[*] At that time, therefore, the water of the Ayak must have flowed for a long distance below Sângala, and most probably fell into the Râvi, as stated by my informant. Near Asarur and Sângala, the Ayak is now quite dry at all seasons; but there must have been water in it at Dhakawala only 24 miles above Asarur, even so late as the reign of Shâh Jahân, when his son Dârâ Shekoh drew a canal from that place to his hunting seat at Shekohpura, which is also called the Ayak, or Jhilri canal.

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∗ ‘Anabasis,’ vi. 6.

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The Buddhist notices of Sâkala refer chiefly to its history in connection with Buddhism. There is the legend of the seven kings who went towards Sâgal to carry off Prabhâvati, the wife of king Kusa.* But the king, mounting an elephant, met them outside the city, and cried out with so loud a voice, "I am Kusa," that the exclamation was heard over the whole world, and the seven kings fled away in terror. This legend may have some reference to the seven brothers and sisters of Amba-Kâpa, which is only 40 miles to the east of Sângala. Before the beginning of the Christian era Sâgal was the capital of Raja Milinda, whose name is still famous in all Buddhist countries as the skilful opponent of the holy Nagasena.† The territory was then called Yona, or Yavana, which might refer either to the Greek conquerors, or to their Indo-Scythian successors; but as Nagasena is said to have lived either 400 or 500 years after Buddha, the date of Milinda is uncertain. Milinda himself states that he was born at Alasadda, which was 200 yojans, or about 1400 miles, distant from Sâgal. He was therefore undoubtedly a foreigner; and, in spite of the exaggerated distance, I would identify his birthplace with Alexandria Opiane, at the foot of the Indian Caucasus, about 40 miles to the north of Kabul. At a somewhat later period, Sákala was subject to Mahirkul, or Mihirkul, who lost his kingdom by an unsuccessful campaign against Balâditya, king of Magadha. But being afterwards set at liberty by the conqueror, he obtained possession of Kashmir by treachery. I know of no other mention of Sâkala until A.D. 633, when it was visited by Hwen Thsang, who describes the neighbouring town of Tse-kia as the capital of a large kingdom, which extended from the Indus to the Byâs, and from the foot of the hills to the confluence of the five rivers.

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∗ Hardy, ‘Manual of Buddhism,’ 263, note.

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† Ibid., 513.

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The classical notices of Sângala are confined to the two historical accounts of Arrian and Curtius, and a passing mention by Diodorus. Curtius simply calls it “a great city defended not only by a wall, but by a swamp (palus).”* But the swamp was a deep one, as some of the inhabitants afterwards escaped by swimming across it (paludem transnavere). Arrian calls it a lake, λίμνη, but adds that it was not deep, that it was near the city wall, and that one of the gates opened upon it. He describes the city itself as strong both by art and nature, being defended by brick walls and covered by the lake. Outside the city there was a low hill, γήλοφος, which the Kathæans had surrounded with a triple line of carts for the protection of their camp.† This little hill I would identify with the low ridge to the north-west, called *Mundapapura*, which would certainly appear to have been outside the city walls, as the broken bricks and pottery do not extend so far.* I conclude that the camp on the hill was formed chiefly by the fugitives from other places, for whom there was no room in the already crowded city. The hill must have been close to the city walls, because the Kathæans, after the second line of carts had been broken by the Greeks, fled into the city and shut the gates. It is clear, therefore, that the triple row of carts could only have surrounded the hill on three sides, and that the fourth side was open to the city. The hill was thus connected with the city as a temporary out-work, from which the defenders, if overpowered, could make their escape behind the walls. As the number of carts captured by Alexander was only 300, the hill must have been a very small one; for if we allow 100 carts to each line, the innermost line, where they were closely packed, at 10 feet per cart, could not have been more than 1000 feet in length round the three sides at the base. Placing the middle row 50 feet beyond the inner one, its length would have been 1200 feet, and that of the outer row, at the same distance, would have been 1400 feet, or little more than a quarter of a mile. Now this accords so well with the size of the *Mundapapura* hill, that I feel considerable confidence in the accuracy of my identification. As these carts were afterwards used by Ptolemy to form a single line of barrier outside the lake, we obtain a limit to its size, as 300 carts would not have extended more than 5000 feet, or about 17 feet per cart, if placed end to end; but as there may have been numerous trees on the bank of the lake, the length of the barrier may be extended to about 6000 feet. Now it is remarkable that this is the exact length of this outer line according to my survey, which shows the utmost extent of the lake in the rainy season. I could find no trace of the rampart and ditch with which Alexander surrounded the town, but I was not disappointed, as the rains of two thousand years must have obliterated them long ago.

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∗ Vita Alex., ix. 1: “Ad magnam deinde urbem pervenit, non muro solum, sed etiam palude munitam.”

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† ‘Anabasis,’ v. 22: Κύκλῳ δὲ τοῦ γηλόφου ἁμάξας περιστήσαντες, ἐντός αὐτῶν ἐστρατοπέδευον, ὡς τριπλοῦν χάρακα προβεβλῆσθαι των ἁμαξῶν.

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∗ See Map No. VIII.

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The Kathæans made an unsuccessful attempt to escape across the lake during the night, but they were checked by the barrier of carts, and driven back into the city. The walls were then breached by undermining, and the place was taken by assault, in which the Kathæans, according to Arrian, lost 17,000 slain, and 70,000 prisoners. Curtius, however, gives the loss of the Kathæans at 8000 killed. I am satisfied that Arrian's numbers are erroneous, either through error or exaggeration, as the city was a small one, and could not, at the ordinary rate of 400 or 500 square feet to each person, have contained more than 12,000 people. If we double or triple this for the influx of fugitives, the whole number would be about 30,000 persons. I should like, therefore, to read Arrian's numbers as 7000 slain and 17,000 prisoners. This would bring his number of slain into accord with Curtius, and his total number into accord with probability.

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Both Curtius and Arrian agree in stating that Alexander had crossed the Hydraotes before he advanced against Sangala, which should therefore be to the east of that river. But the detailed measurements of Hwen Thsang are too precise, the statement of the Mahâbhârata is too clear, and the coincidence of name is too exact to be set aside lightly. Now, the accounts of both Arrian and Curtius show that Alexander was in full march for the Ganges when he heard "that certain free Indians and Kathæans were resolved to give him battle if he attempted to lead his army thither." Alexander no sooner heard this than he immediately directed his march against the Kathæans, that is, he changed the previous direction of his march, and proceeded towards Sangala. This was the uniform plan on which he acted during his campaign in Asia, to leave no enemy behind him. When he was in full march for Persia, he turned aside to besiege Tyre; when he was in hot pursuit of Bessus, the murderer of Darius, he turned to the south to subdue Drangiana and Arachosia; and when he was longing to enter India, he deviated from his direct march to besiege Aornos. With the Kathæans the provocation was the same. Like the Tyrians, the Drangians, and the Bazarians of Aornos, they wished to avoid rather than to oppose Alexander; but if attacked they were resolved to resist. Alexander was then on the eastern bank of the Hydraotes, or Râvi, and on the day after his departure from the river he came to the city of Pimprama, where he halted to refresh his soldiers, and on the third day reached Sangala. As he was obliged to halt after his first two marches, they must have been forced ones, of not less than 25 miles each, and his last may have been a common march of 12 or 15 miles. Sangala, therefore, must have been about 60 or 65 miles from the camp on the bank of the Hydraotes. Now this is the exact distance of the Sangala hill from Lahor which was most probably the position of Alexander’s camp when he heard of the recusancy of the Kathæi. I believe, therefore, that Alexander at once gave up his march to the Ganges, and re-crossed the Râvi to punish the people of Sangala for daring to withhold their submission.

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