The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t16.10

c6.s3.t16.10

The *Akshay-baṭ* is next mentioned by Rashīd-ud-dīn in the *Jāmiu-t-tawārīkh*, where he states that the “tree of Prāg” is situated at the confluence of Jumna and Ganges. As most of his information was derived from Abu Rihân, the date of this notice may with great probability be referred to the time of Mahmud of Ghazni. In the seventh century a great sandy plain, 2 miles in circuit, lay between the city and the confluence of the rivers, and as the tree was in the midst of the city, it must have been at least one mile from the confluence. But nine centuries later, in the beginning of Akbar’s reign, Abdul Kâdir speaks of the “tree from which people cast themselves into the river.”* From this statement I infer that during the long period that intervened between the time of Hwen Thsang and that of Akbar, the two rivers had gradually carried away the whole of the great sandy plain, and had so far encroached upon the city, as to place the holy tree on the very brink of the water. Long before this time the old city had no doubt been deserted, for we know that the fort of *Ilāhābās* was founded on its site in the twenty-first year of Akbar’s reign, that is, in A.H. 982, or A.D. 1572. Indeed the way in which Abu Rihân speaks of the “tree” instead of the city of Prāg, leads me to believe that the city itself had already been deserted before his time. As far as I am aware, it is not once mentioned in any Muhammadan history until it was refounded by Akbar.†