The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t7.1

c6.s3.t7.1

On leaving Madâwar, Hwen Thsang travelled northward for 300 *li*, or 50 miles, to *Po-lo-ki-mo-pu-lo*, which M. Julien correctly renders as Brahmapura. Another reading gives *Po-lo-hi-mo-lo*,‡ in which the syllable *pu* is omitted, perhaps by mistake. The northern bearing is certainly erroneous, as it would have carried the pilgrim across the Ganges and back again into Srughna. We must therefore read north-east, in which direction lie the districts of Garhwâl and Kumaon that once formed the famous kingdom of the Katyuri dynasty. That this is the country intended by the pilgrim is proved by the fact that it produced copper, which must refer to the well-known copper mines of Dhanpur and Pokhri in Garhwâl, which have been worked from a very early date. Now the ancient capital of the Katyuri Rajas was at *Lakhanpur* or *Vairât-pattan* on the Râmgangâ river, about 80 miles in a direct line from Madâwar. If we might take the measurement from Kot-dwâra, at the foot of the hills on the north-east frontier of Maḍâwar, the distance would agree with the 50 miles recorded by Hwen Thsang. It occurs to me, however, as a much more probable explanation of the discrepancy in the recorded bearing and distance that they must properly refer to Govisana, the next place visited by Hwen Thsang, from which Bairát lies exactly 50 miles due north.