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114
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1893.
Broach, no Buddhist remains have ever been discovered there. Toka or Tokên, on the Godavari, in the Newasa Taluka of the Ahmednagar District, about 195 miles to the south-east of Broach, is nothing but an ordinary village, of not the slightest importance, except that it has a post-office and a few purely modern temples which are supposed to be invested with sanctity, - for which reasons alone it is mentioned in Gazetteers. And Phulthamba, properly Puņtâmbe, on the same river, and in the Kôpargaon Taluka of the same district, about 28 miles towards the north-west of ļoka, is nothing but a market-village with a railway station, and, in the same way, with a few entirely modern temples, and is mentioned in Gazetteers simply because it is such. Mr. Beal himself, locating the capital of Kong-kin-na-pu-lo near Golkonda in the Nizam's Dominions, arrived at the conclusion that Hiuen Triang's capital of Maharashtra must be found near the Tapti river, or perhaps near the Girna, which flows through Nâsik and Khåndësh and joins the Tapti about fifteen miles to the north of Erandol. But he did not suggest any particular town. And, as I have already intimated, there is no place on either river, at or near the required distance from Broach, answering to the description given by Hiuen Tsiang.
My own attention was attracted specially to the point quite recently, in consequence of a visit to the cave-temples at Ajanta (properly Ajîntha). They are described by Hiuen Tsiang, in his account of Maharashtra, and are located by him in a great mountain on the eastern frontier of the country. And they are, in fact, in the Chậudôr or Sâtmålà range, - just about the point where the range, which finally merges itself in the highlands that form the southern frontier of Berår, turns towards the south. To the west of Ajanta, the range runs through Nândgaon and Chandôr (properly Chandwad), and merges in the Sahyadri chain in the north-west part of the Nâsik District. And what first forcibly struck my attention, when, after crossing the range from the direction of Ellôrâ, or rather after descending from the plateau which there runs along the southern crest of it, I was travelling along the north of it, is the conspicuous "wall-like boundary " that it makes, from near Nand. gaon to at least as far as Ajanţâ, between Khåndêsh and the country to the south. In the neighbourhood of Nandgaon and Manmâd, where the range is much broken and the level of the country itself rises a good deal, this peculiar feature is not so well marked. But it develops itself again to the west of Manmad. And, taking the range as a whole, there can be no doubt that, in direct continuation of the eastern frontier, on which Hiuen Tsiang placed the Ajantâ caves, it formed the natural northern frontier of the country which he was describing
Now, the distance from Broach as given hy the Chinese pilgrim, vis. 167 miles, must be accepted more or less closely. But, as regards the bearings, while the text of the Si-yu-ki says that Broach was to the west of the unnamed capital of Maharashtra (loc. cit. p. 259), still, however freely we may interpret the narrative, any easterly direction from Broach, even with a southerly bearing not sufficiently marked to require it to be called plainly southeasterly, carries us decidedly to the north of the Sâtmâļå range, and so keeps us outside the northern frontier of the country. On the other hand, however, Hwui-li, who wrote the Life of Hiuen Tsiang, says (Beal's Life of Hiuen Triang, p. 147) that the direction of Broach from the unnamed capital was north-west; and any approximately south-east bearing from Broach takes ub, at the distance of 110 to 167 miles, well to the south of the Såtmâlâs. And I think, therefore, that the bearings given by Hwui-li mast of necessity be more correct than those in the narrative from which extracts have been given above.
And there is still one other point to be mentioned. Mr. Beal's expression “the capital borders on the west on a great river" is,- possibly owing to want of punctuation,- not very explicit, to say the least. And I think that we must prefer the far plainer words made use of by M. Stanislas Julien (Vie de Hiouen-Thsang, p. 415), "du côté de l'ouest, la capitale
• See the Gawetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. XII., Khandesh, p. 5; also see YOL XVI., N Aaik, p. 5.
