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The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t11: 10. Mathura.

The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t11

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10. Mathura.

c6.s3.t11.1

In the seventh century the famous city of Mathura was the capital of a large kingdom, which is said to have been 5000 *li*, or 833 miles, in circuit.* If this estimate is correct, the province must have included not only the whole of the country lying between the districts of Bairât and Atranji, but a still larger tract beyond Agra, as far as Narwar and Seopuri on the south, and the Sindh river on the east. Within these limits the circuit of the province is 650 miles measured direct, or upwards of 750 miles by road distance. It includes the present district of Mathura, with the small states of Bharatpur, Khiraoli, and Dholpur, and the northern half of the Gwalior territory. To the east it would have been bounded by the kingdom of Jijhaoti, and on the south by Malwa, both of which are described by Hwen Thsang as separate kingdoms.

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In the seventh century the city was 20 *li*, or 3 1/3 miles, in circuit, which agrees with its size at the present day. But the position is not exactly the same, as the houses have been gradually moving to the north and west as the Jumna encroached on the east. The old city is said to have extended from the Nabi Masjid and Fort of Raja-kansa on the north to the mounds called *Tila Kans* and *Tila Sat Rikh* on the south; but the southern half of this space is now deserted, and an equal space has been gradually built upon outside the old city to the north and west of the Nabi Masjid. The city is surrounded by numbers of high mounds; several of which are no doubt old brick kilns; but many of them are the remains of extensive buildings, which, having been dug over for ages in search of bricks, are now mere heaps of brick-dust and broken brick. I refer more especially to the great mound near the jail, 3 miles to the south of the city, which from its appearance was always supposed to be the remains of a brick and tile kiln. But this unpromising-looking mound has since yielded numbers of statues and inscribed pillars, which prove that it is the remains of at least two large Buddhist monasteries of as early a date as the beginning of the Christian era.

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∗ Julien's 'Hiouen Thsang,' ii. 207. See Map No. X.

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The holy city of Mathura is one of the most ancient places in India. It is famous in the history of Krishna, as the stronghold of his enemy Raja Kansa; and it is noticed by Arrian,[*] on the authority of Megasthenes, as the capital of the Suraseni. Now Surasena was the grandfather of Krishna, and from him Krishna and his descendants, who held Mathura after the death of Kansa, were called Surasenas. According to Arrian the Suraseni possessed two great cities, *Methoras* and *Klisoboras*, and the navigable river *Jobares* flowed through their territories. Pliny[†] names the river *Jomanes*, that is the Jumna, and says that it passed between the towns of *Methora* and *Clisobora*. Ptolemy mentions only Mathura, under the form of *Modura*, *Μοδούρα*, to which he adds *ἡ τῶν θεῶν*, that is “the city of the gods,” or holy city.

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∗ ‘Indica,’ viii.

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† Nat. Hist., vi. 19.

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