The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t15: 13. Hayamukha.
The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t15
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13. Hayamukha.
c6.s3.t15.1
From Ayuto the pilgrim proceeded down the Ganges by boat for a distance of 300 *li*, or 50 miles, to *O.ye.mu.khi*, which was situated on the northern bank of the river. M. Julien* reads this name as *Hayamukha*, or "Horse-face;" but it may perhaps also be read as *Ayomukha*, or "Iron-face," which was the name of one of the ancient *Dânavas*, or Titans. Neither of these names, however, gives any clue to the site of the old city; but if I am right in my identification of *Ayuto* with Kâkûpur, it is almost certain that *Hayamukha* must be *Daundia-khera* on the northern bank of the Ganges. Hwen Thsang makes the circuit of the town 20 *li*, or upwards of 3 miles; but *Daundia-khera* presents no appearance of ever having been so large. There still exists an old ruined fort or citadel, 385 feet square, with the walls of two buildings which are called the palaces of the Râja and the Râni. But as *Daundia-khera* is universally allowed to have been the capital of the Bais Rajputs, who gave their name to the district of Baiswâra in Oudh, it is almost certain that the place must once have been of much greater extent. *Dondia* or *Daundia* means simply a "drum-beater," and was probably applied to some mendicant, who took up his abode on the *Khera*, or "mound," and as this name is not likely to have been imposed on the place until it was in ruins, the difference of name offers no impediment to the identification of *Daundia-khera* with *Hayamukha*.
c6.s3.t15.2
∗ Julien's 'Hiouen Thsang,' ii. 274.
c6.s3.t15.3
Hwen Thsang makes *Hayamukha* 2500 *li*, or 417 miles, in circuit, which is perhaps too great; but as *Ḍauṇḍia-khera* was the capital of the Bais Rajputs, I conclude that the district must have comprised the whole of the present *Baiswâra*, which lies between the Sai river and the Ganges, from Cawnpore to Mânikpur and Salon. But as these limits would give a circuit of only 200 miles, it seems almost certain that the district must have extended to the south of the Ganges in the time of Hwen Thsang. Its probable limits were, therefore, the Ghâgra river on the north, and the Jumna on the south, a determination which derives some support from Tod,* who describes Baiswâra as an extensive district in the *Doáb* between the Ganges and Jumna.