Historical Geography of Ancient India c8.205

c8.205

According to Fa-hien who visited the city of Gayā in the 5th century A.D., all was emptiness and desolation inside the city (Legge, *Travels of Fa-hien*, p. 87). According to Hiuen Tsang, the city of Gayā was strongly situated. It had few inhabitants and more than one thousand Brahmin families. Above 30 li to the north of the city there was a clear spring, the water of which was held sacred. Five or six li to the south-west of the city was the Gayā mountain (Gayāśiras) with dark gorges and inaccessible cliffs. On the top of this mountain there was a stone tope more than 100 feet high built by Aśoka. There was also a tope at the native city of Kāśyapa on the south-east from the Gayā mountain (Watters, *On Yuan Chwang*, II, pp. 110ff.).