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/44

20 evidence thus furnished by the existence of this stûpa, of the course of the Son, at the time it was built. Although the Buddhist accounts do not name the river on whose banks the stûpa was built, there can be no doubt it was a large river to deserve mention at all. The Punpun is a small river which discharges a small sluggish stream at all seasons except the rains, when it is swelled to a great size by rain and by the spill-waters of the Son (which breaking through the embanked road now running along its eastern banks, and pouring through the openings left in it, sends part of its spill-waters down its old bed to this day), and would hardly have deserved mention at all in the meagre account (if a bare mention can be so called) which the Buddhist writings furnish of the stûpa over the measuring vessel.

It appears then that from unknown antiquity down to the period of Buddha’s nirvâna, the Son flowed in the channel I have indicated, joining the Ganges at Fatuha.

Let us now attempt to trace its subsequent changes.

In A. D. 630 to 640, when Hwen Thsang visited India, he went to the stûpa built over the measuring vessel, which was on the banks of a river. As he does not mention having crossed a river, it appears not unreasonable to infer that no large river intervened between Arrah and the stûpa. Against this supposition, however, is the circumstance that he does not mention crossing any large rivers, except the Lilâjan, on his way from Patna to Gaya, so that his silence leaves the point undecided.

The next mention of the Son is in the Mudra Râkhshasa, Wilson’s Hindu Theatre, where the son and successor of the King of the Mountains, leading an army against Pâtaliputra, says—

From this passage it is clear that the Son then flowed to the west of Patna, and had to be crossed before an