The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t10.4

c6.s3.t10.4

To the north-west, three-quarters of a mile distant, stands the large mound of *Agahat*, which is 40 feet in height, and rather more than half a mile in diameter at base. The name of the old town is said to have been *Agahat*, but the place is now called *Agahat Sarai* (*Aghat* of the maps) from a modern *Sarai*, which was built in A.H. 1080, or A.D. 1670, on the north-east corner of the mound, by the ancestor of the present Pathân *Zamindar*. The people say that before this, the place had been deserted for several centuries; but as I obtained a tolerably complete series of the copper coins of the Muhammadan kings of Delhi and Jonpur, I presume that it could not have been deserted for any very long time. The mound is covered with broken bricks of large size, which alone is a sure test of antiquity: and as it is of the same height as that of Sankisa, the people are most probably right in their assertion that the two places are of the same age. In both mounds are found the same old coins without any inscriptions, the more ancient being square pieces of silver covered with various punch-marks, and the others, square pieces of copper that have been cast in a mould,—all of which are, in my opinion, anterior to the invasion of Alexander the Great.