[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Historical geography](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography) › [The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.cunningham-1871) › c6.s3.5 # The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.5 The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.5 - **Language:** English ### [c6.s3.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.cunningham-1871.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\*. - [Previous: c6.s3.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.cunningham-1871.c6.s3.4) - [Next: c6.s3.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.cunningham-1871.c6.s3.6) - [Up: c6.s3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.cunningham-1871.c6.s3) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.cunningham-1871.c6.s3.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.geography.cunningham-1871.c6.s3.5) · Pramāṇa