The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s4.t6.11

c5.s4.t6.11

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.