The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t20.6

c6.s3.t20.6

It is certain at least that the suburbs outside the walls must have been very limited indeed, as the place is almost entirely surrounded with the remains of large religious buildings, which would have left but little room for any private dwellings. I am therefore quite satisfied that the city has been mistaken for the palace; and this mistake is sufficient to show how utterly ruined this once famous city must have been at so distant a period as the seventh century, when the place was visited by Hwen Thsang. As Fa-Hian describes the population as already very inconsiderable in A.D. 400, while the Ceylonese annals speak of Khiradhára, king of Sawatthipura between A.D. 275 and 302, the great decline of Srâvasti must have taken place during the fourth century, and we may perhaps not be far wrong in connecting it with the fall of the Gupta dynasty in A.D. 319.