Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c23.21

c23.21

spite of their foreign origin, as Kṣatriyas in India is also indicated by another evidence. In the second quarter of the 7th century A.D., when the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen-tsang was passing through Uttarāpatha, Udakahāṇḍa¹ or Udabhāṇḍapura was the place of residence of a secondary capital of the emperor of Kāpiśa which then dominated over ten neighbouring States and comprised Lampāka (Laghman), Nagara or Nagarahāra (Jalalabad), Gandhāra and Varṇa (Bannu) and probably also Jāguḍa (Southern Afghanistan with Ghaznī as the chief city). About Gandhāra, the pilgrim says that its capital was Puruṣapura; ‘the royal family was extinct and the country was subject to Kāpiśa; the towns and villages were desolate and the inhabitants were very few’.³ It seems that, under pressure of the Turks from the north and the Arabs from the south and west, the kings of Kāpiśa left their western possessions in the hands of viceroys,⁴ and made Udabhāṇḍa their principal seat of residence. The reason why Udabhāṇḍapura was selected in preference to the older capital Peshawar is at present unknown. But it is possible that the new city was built by the Kāpiśa kings for strategic reasons.