Historical Geography of Ancient India c9.45

c9.45

According to the *Divyāvadāna* (pp. 545–576) Bharukaccha was a rich and prosperous city, thickly populated. Hiuen Tsang, who visited this place in the 7th century A.D., described it to be 2,400 or 2,500 li in circuit. The soil was impregnated with salt. It was brackish and its vegetation sparse. Salt was made by boiling sea-water, and the people were supported by the sea. Trees and shrubs were scarce and scattered. The climate was hot. The people were mean and deceitful, ignorant, and believers in both orthodoxy and heterodoxy. There were more than ten Buddhist monasteries with 300 brethren who were the adherents of the Mahāyāna Sthavira school. There were about ten deva-temples in which there were sectaries of various kinds.¹