Page:Report of a Tour Through the Bengal Provinces of Patna, Gaya, Mongir and Bhagalpur; The Santal Parganas, Manbhum, Singhbhum and Birbhum; Bankura, Raniganj, Bardwan and Hughli in 1872-73.djvu/11

Rh by him, form the three corners of a square of 15 feet side, so that I have no doubt they, with the existing fourth one, formed the pillars of the Maha-mandapa of a Temple.

If we suppose the Son to have flowed as indicated by me, the road from Rajgir to Patna would cross it at Sonmayi, so that we have an intelligible reason for its ancient importance. On the north bank would have stood Mohiuddinpur Khera, a place even now of importance, and whose ancient importance and present decay is attested by its very name, Mohiuddinpur Khera, "Khera" meaning old ruin.

But although it is perfectly clear that this was the course of the Son at a certain period as stated in the body of the report, the excavations of General Cunningham shew that at one time the Son, or a part of it, flowed close to the south of Panj Pahari and Patna, past Manpur Bairia and Mahaoli. General Cunningham has also pointed out to me a statement of Patanjali, that Pataliputra was situated on the Son [Anu Sonam Pataliputram], which proves that in his time it certainly flowed down this channel. This is an important link in the chain. I have shewn, I believe conclusively, that the Son flowed down the course I have indicated in the body of the report at the time when the Ramayana was written; that it continued in this course at the period of Buddha's death; and that, at the period of the composition of the Mudra Rakhshasa, it had begun flowing down its present bed. It now appears that at some intermediate and so far undetermined period it began flowing down a channel which has not left many traces, but which I take to have been the channel found by Captain Maxwell from Saidabad past Naubatpur, Bikram, and Phulwari, and on eastwards past Manpur Bairia and Mahaoli. That it did not long continue in this course is attested not only by the absence of jhils along this line, but by the far more emphatic absence of a single important place of antiquity, and the absence of all remains of antiquity, along it. No