The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.5

c6.s3.5

About a century after their expulsion from Balabhi the representative of the Balabhis, named *Bappa* or *Vappaka*, founded a new kingdom at Chitor, and his son *Guhila*, or *Guháditya*, gave to his tribe the new name of *Guhiláwat*, or *Gahilot*, by which they are still known. About the same time* a chief of the *Chaura* tribe, named *Ban Raja*, or the "Jangal Lord," founded a city on the bank of the Saraswati, about seventy miles to the south-west of Mount Abu, called *Analwára Pattan*, which soon became the most famous place in Western India. Somewhat earlier, or about A.D. 720, Krishna, the Pahlava prince of the peninsula, built the fort of *Elápura*, the beauty of which, according to the inscription, astonished the immortals. In it he established an image of Siva adorned with the crescent. Following this clue I incline to identify *Elápura* with the famous city of *Somnáth*, which, as the capital of the peninsula, was usually called Pattan Somnáth. According to Postans† the old "city of Pattan" is built upon a projection of the "mainland, forming the southern point of the small port and bay of *Veráwal*." This name I take to be the same as *Elápura* or *Eláwar*, which, by a transposition that is very common in India, would become *Eráwal*. Thus *Nar-sinh* has become *Ran-si*, and *Ranod* is used indifferently with *Narod*, but we have a still more striking instance in the change from the ancient *Várul* to the modern *Elur* or *Elora*. Now Patan Somnáth was famous for a temple of Siva, which enshrined a figure of the god bearing a crescent on his head as *Somnáth*, or the "lord of the moon." This appellation was therefore the proper name of the temple, and not of the city, which I conclude must have been *Elápura* or *Erawal*, the modern *Veráwal*.