Tribes in Ancient India c6.47

c6.47

Cunningham says that the site of Takṣaśilā is found near Shah-Dheri just one mile to the N.E. of Kāla-ka-sarāi, in the extensive ruins of a fortified city around which he was able to trace no less than 55 stūpas (of which two are as large as the great Mānikyāla tope), 28 monasteries and 9 temples. Now the distance from Shah-Dheri to Ohind is 36 miles, and from Ohind to Hashtnagar another 38, making 74 miles in all,—which is 19 in excess of the distance between Taxila and Peukelaotis (Puṣkalāvatī) as recorded by Pliny. To reconcile the discrepancy, Cunningham suggests that Pliny's 60 miles or LX should be read as 80 miles or LXXX, which is equivalent to 73½ English miles or within half a mile of the actual distance between the two places (Cunningham, *Ancient Geography*, p. 105). Dr. Bhandarkar says² that in Aśoka's time Takṣaśilā does not appear to have been the capital of Gandhāra, for from his Rock Edict XIII it seems that Gandhāra was not in his dominions proper, but was feudatory to him; while from the Kalinga Edict I, we learn that Takṣaśilā was directly under him, as one of his sons was stationed there. The deduction that Takṣaśilā was not the capital of Gandhāra at that time is confirmed by Ptolemy's statement that the Gandarai (Gandhāra) country was situated to the west of the Indus with its city Proklais, i.e. Puṣkarāvatī.³