The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t20.2

c6.s3.t20.2

The position of the famous city of *Srávasti*, one of the most celebrated places in the annals of Buddhism, has long puzzled our best scholars. This was owing partly to the contradictory statements of the Chinese pilgrims themselves, and partly to the want of a good map of the province of Oudh. In my account of Vi-sákha or Ajudhya, I have compared the bearings and distances recorded by Fa-Hian and Hwen Thsang with those preserved in the Buddhist annals of Ceylon, and I have shown conclusively that Fa-Hian’s distance from Sankisa and his bearing from Shachi or Sáket are both erroneous. We know from Hwen Thsang and the Buddhist books of Ceylon that Srávasti was to the north of Sáket or Ajudhya, or in other words that it was in the district of Gauḍa or Uttara Kosala, which is confirmed by the statements of no less than four of the Brahmanical Purânas. And as Fa-Hian also says that Shewei or Sewet was in Kosala, there can be no doubt whatever that Srávasti must be looked for within a few days’ journey to the northward of Sáket or Ayodhya. According to Fa-Hian the distance was 8 yojanas, or 56 miles, which is increased by Hwen Thsang to 500 li, or 83 miles.* But as the latter pilgrim reduced the Indian yojana to Chinese measure at the rate of 40 li per yojana, we may correct his distance by the nearest round number of 350 li, or 58 miles, to bring it into accordance with the other. Now, as this is the exact distance from Ajudhya of the great ruined city on the south bank of the Rapti, called Sáhet-Máhet, in which I discovered a colossal statue of Buddha with an inscription containing the name of Srávasti itself, I have no hesitation in correcting Hwen Thsang’s distance from 500 li to 350 li, as proposed above.