The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t2.11

c6.s3.t2.11

According to the Chinese pilgrim, the great division of Central India extended from the Satlej to the head of the Gangetic Delta, and from the Himalâya mountains to the Narbadâ and Mahânadi rivers. It comprised all the richest and most populous districts of India, with the single exception of the Gangetic Delta, or Bengal proper.* Of the seventy separate states of India that existed in the seventh century, no less than thirty-seven, or rather more than one-half, belonged to Central India. The whole of these districts were visited by Hwen Thsang, whose footsteps I will now attend in describing the different principalities from west to east in the following order:—