Tribes in Ancient India c23.4

c23.4

Yuan Chwang, the celebrated Chinese pilgrim, refers to a country named Ku-lu-to (Watters, I, p. 298) which place he reached from Jālandhara after having travelled north-east, across mountains and ravines, by hazardous paths, for above 700 *li*. The region, says he, was entirely surrounded by mountains. Its capital was 14 or 15 *li* in circuit. It had a rich soil and yielded regular crops, and it had a rich vegetation. The climate grew gradually cold and there was little snow. There were in the country twenty Buddhist monasteries with above 1,000 brethren of whom the most were Mahāyānists, a few adhering to the Hīnayāna school. Of Deva temples, there were fifteen, and the professed non-Buddhists lived pell-mell. Cunningham long ago identified this Kiu-lu-to country of Yuan Chwang ‘with the position of the Kullu district in the Upper valley of Byās river’. The position is roughly identical with the modern Kangra district.