Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c23.5

c23.5

According to epic and Puranic traditions, the Gandhāra *viṣaya*, which lay on both sides of the Indus, contained two great cities called Takṣaśilā and Puṣkalāvatī. The remains of Takṣaśilā lie immediately to the east and north-east of the Saraikala Railway Junction, 20 miles north-west of Rawalpindi, in the valley of the river Haro. There are remains of three distinct cities, of which the southernmost and oldest occupied the site of an elevated plateau now known as the Bhir Mound. The ancient city of Puṣkalāvatī or Puṣkarāvatī, ‘the city of lotuses’, was situated on the Swat in the modern Prang-Charsadda-Mir Ziyarat region, about 17 miles north-east of Peshawar.