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GEOGRAPHY
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Sodrai in the western part of the Punjab. The land of the Khuddakas (Sk. Kşudrakā,1 Greek Sudracae, Oxydrakai) which is placed in the Greek accounts between the Hydraotes (Ravi) and the Hyphasis (Bias), may be located in the district of Montgomery. Madra was the country of the Sivis which had Sāgala (Sk. Sākala, modern Sialkot) as its capital; the river Irāvati flowed through it. Alasanda (variant Allasanda) was a city in the Yona country which is mentioned in the Mahāniddesa as a centro of trade and commerce, The Greek equivalent of the name would be Alexandria. In the Milindapanha Alasanda is described as a dipa, which has led scholars to suggest that it was 'an island in the Indus in the territory of Baktria'.? But according to Dr. Geiger, it was probably the town founded by the Macedonian king in the country of Paropanisadae near Kabul'.8 The fact seems to be this that Alasanda was both the name of a country and its chief town. In the Mahāniddesa (pp. 155, 415) it is mentioned just after Yona
1 Mahabharata, u, 52.15; vu, 68 9. 2 Raychaudhuri, op. c., p. 205. 8 Mahābhārata, 11, 31.119. 4 Matsya Purana, 114.7, 16-18. 6 Mahāniddesa, pp. 156, 415. & Malmda, pp. 82, 327, 331, 369. 7 Rhys Davids, The Questions of King Milinda, S.B.E., 1, p. xx 8 Mahavamsa, English translation, p. 194, f.n. 8.
