On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c13.9

v1.c13.9

The Sthāneśvara of this passage has been identified with the modern Thānesar (Tānesar, Tanessar) in Ambala. Cunningham seems to regard this identification as beyond question¹, although in perhaps no point of distance, direction or measurement do the two places correspond. Thānesar is about 180 miles to the north-north-west of Mathurā², and Sthāneśvar was about 100 miles to the north-east of that place: the area of the country as given by the pilgrim is too great by one fourth and that of the "holy land" (Yuan-chuang's Place of Happiness, that is Religious Merit) is too small by half. Moreover the *Fu-li* of the Records cannot be regarded as a translation of Dharma-Kṣhetra, another name for the Kuru-Kṣhetra. Besides, this latter name designated a large plain above 100 miles to the south-east of Thānesvar, and the Fu-ti was all round the city Sthānesvara for only about 40 miles. Cunningham in his usual manner proposes to get over some of the difficulties by taking liberties with the pilgrim's text. It is better, however, to regard our pilgrim as being correct in his statement of distance and direction from Mathurā to Sthānesvara, and as deriving his information on other matters from the Brethren in the monasteries. He seems to represent himself as going to the great monastery 100 *li* (about 20 miles) south from the capital. Had he made a journey to the south of Thānesar, he would probably have told us of the celebrated Tank in the district about which Alberuni and Tavernier relate wonderful things.¹