Tribes in Ancient India c57.14

c57.14

On the authority of Hsüan Tsang’s description of the Po-shih-po monastery in Puṇḍravardhana, Cunningham identified the capital of Puṇḍravardhana with Mahāsthān, saying that the Buddhist remains of Bhāsu Vihāra, 4 miles to the west of Mahāsthān, corresponded with those noted by Hsüan Tsang at the Po-shih-po monastery, situated just 4 miles to the west of the capital city of Puṇḍravardhana.¹ This conclusion is confirmed by the mention of ‘Puṇḍanagala’ (= Puṇḍranagara, the city of the Puṇḍras) in a fragmentary Maurya Brāhmī Inscription paleographically dated in the second century B.C., which has been discovered at Mahāsthān, 7 miles north of the modern town of Bogra.²