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THE SITE OF KAUSAMBI
129 Hiuen Tsang whom Dr. Vincent A. Smith considers to be absolutely reliable. Suffice it to say that the distance of Kausambi, given by this pilgrim, from Prayaga (modern Allahabad) and Sravasti, whose sites are known with absolute certainty which appear to Dr. Vincent A. Smith to constitute the principal argument conform with the position neither of Kosam nor of Sutna. For while Sutna is situated to the south-west of Saheth-Maheth (ancient Srivasti) the distance between the two places is 500 li roughly 84 miles in excess of that mentioned by the Chinese pilgrim. On the other hand, the distance separating Kosam from Saheth-Maheth is approximately identical with the 1,000 li of Hiuen Tsang. But, though the pilgrim had to travel 500 li from Prayaga to reach Kausambi, the actual distance, in a straight line, of Kosam from Allahabad is not much more than 30 miles or 200 li. It is possible that Hiuen Tsang visited Kausambi in the rainy season, when the country around Kosam becomes literally impassable, and had thus to follow a very circuitous route. If, however, this was not the case, we must admit that the distance given by him is erroneous; and we need not be surprised at this, because, after all, Hiuen Tsang had come to India to pay his homage to the sacred places associated with the earthly career of the Blessed One, and not to prepare a geographical treatise on India. We do know that his statements regarding several other places about the correct location of which there can now be no manner of doubt, are far from correct.
In the circumstances, the aid of inscriptions found on the spot becomes, in many cases, indispensable. Dr. Vincent A. Smith was aware of the existence of three inscriptions, viz., one of the year Samvat 1881, another of the reign of Akbar engraved on the Asoka Pillar standing in situ at Kosam, and a third one discovered at the ancient Fort of Kara near the Sirathu Railway Station in the district of Allahabad. The first document clearly refers to the locality as Kosambinagar. The inscription on the pillar registers some pious act by certain goldsmiths of Kausambi. But Dr. Saith held that the epigraph simply proved that the persons mentioned resided in that city, wherever it was
situated. The inscription from Kara had not been correctly interShree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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