Page:The Indian Antiquary Vol 1.pdf/35

 GEOGRAPHY OF MAGADHA.

JANUARY 5, 1872.]

or six miles can, by any possibility be allowed, e.g. Bihár to Nálanda “one yojaná” actual dis tance 5% or 6 miles; Patna to Bihār 9 yojanas— actual distance about 54 miles; Nálanda to

Rajgir one yojana, actualdistance—5} or 6 miles. For these reasons I consider a yojana as equi valent to a distance of between 5 and 6 miles.

I now proceed to follow the text of Mr. Beal page 110, chapter 28. “From this city [Patna] proceeding in a south-easterly direction nine yó janas, we arrive at a small rocky hill standing by itself, on the top of which is a stone cell facing the south.

On one occasion, when Buddha was

sitting in the middle of this cell, the divine Sekra took with him his attendant musicians,

each one provided with a five-stringed lute, and caused them to sound a strain in the place where Buddha was seated.

Then the divine Sekra

proposed forty-two questions to Buddha, writing each one of them singly with his finger upon a stone. The traces of these questions yet exist. There is also a Saïigháráma built upon this spot. Going south-west from this one yójana we arrive at the village of Ná-lo.” This hill is identified by General Cunning ham with Giryak. “The remains of Giryak” he writes” “appear to me to correspond exactly with the accounts given by Fa-hBian of the Hill of the Isolated Rock.”

His reasons are twofold,

1st the position, and 2nd the supposed etymology, of Giryek, i.e., giri-eka ek giri. I think I shall be able to show beyond doubt that this identifi cation is entirely erroneous. Firstly, at Giryak there is no solitary hill at all, nor any hill which can be described as resemb

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must have been situated somewhere to the south

of the Rajgir hills, in the middle of the Nowādá valley, but, strange to say, he identifies it with Bargãon which is exactly north-west of the Rajgir hills in the centre of the Bihār valley. For this reason it is clear that “the hill of the

solitary rock” could not be Giryak. The two identifications involve a dilemma, because no

amount of argument can make Bargãon six miles south-west of Giryak, when physically it is six miles in the very opposite direction. The identification of Nálanda with Bargãon (Vihára gráma) is undoubtedly right, and as a consequence, that of the “solitary hill” with Giryak—un doubtedly wrong. Strange to say, General Cun ningham writes as one reason for identifying Nālanda with Bargãon (page 469)—“Fah Hian places the hamlet of Ná-lo at one yojana, or seven miles from the hill of the isolated rock,

i.e. from Giryak, and also the same distance from new Raja Grihá. This account agrees exactly with the position of Bargdon with respect to Giryak and Rajgir.” Now in reality both translators agree in placing Nālanda to the south-west of the hill, and as a matter of fact Bargãon is north-west of Giryak. I have no hesitation in identifying the “soli tary hill” with the rocky peak at Bihár, which rises by itself in the midst of the plain covered with rice and poppy fields, and which

gently slopes from the northern foot of the Raj gir hills to the banks of the Ganges itself. My reasons for so doing are: first,-correspondence of the relative distance and position of the Bihár rock and Patna, and of the solitary hill and Pa

ling in any way an eminence of that description.

táliputra; second-the agreement of the re

At Giryak terminates the rocky range of the

lative distance and position of the Bihār rock

Rajgir hills, which stretch from the neighbour hood of Gya to the banks of the Panchana, on which the village of Giryak stands, and, as a

and Bargéon, and the “solitaryhill” and Nálanda; third, natural appearances of the Bihár rock.

matter of fact, the hill which rises above the village—so far from being solitary—is a mere off

Sáriputra's birth. Sáriputra returned here to en ter Nirvāna. A town therefore was erected on

shoot of Vipulagir at Rajgir and is not less

this spot which is still in existence.” Nālanda corresponds with Bargãon, a spot still

than six miles in length.

Of Nálanda, Fah says, “this was the place of

Secondly, from the “ solitary hill” Fah-Hi

marked with the ruins of vast topes and temples.

ºn proceeded south-west, one yöjana, to Nála.

“ Going west from this one yojana we arrive at the new Rajgir.” This corresponds with the large circuit of fortifications at the foot of the Baibhār and Vipula hills, exactly six miles to

Now Nâla has been identified most satisfactorily

With Bargãon [Cunningham page 469] by Pºsition and by the aid of inscriptions, but “range to say, Bargãon is exactly six miles ham's identification of Giryak be right, Nálanda
 * TH-west of Giryak. If General Cunning

the south of the Bargãon ruins.

I therefore

think the direction given by the translators must be a mistake.


 * Ancient Geography of India, page 472.