QN MOUNT CAUCASUS. 463 



mafcuHne, Para for the feminine, and Param far the 

 neuter genders. 



Bdmiyaii is reprefented in the books of the Baud- 

 dhijls, as the foiirce of holinefs and purity. It is alio 

 called Stharma-Bdmlyan or Sham-Bamiyan ; for in Sari' 

 ferity Shanna and Shama are fynonymous. This is alfo 

 one of the thoufand names of Vishnu, and of the fa- 

 mous patriarch Shem; by whom, according to the 

 Bauddbijis, Bdmiyan was built. They fay, that he wa* 

 an incarnation of Jin a or Vishnu, and the Brdhmem 

 m general are of that opinion. 



This famous city, the Thebes of the eaft, being hard^ 

 ly known in Europe, I beg leave to lay before the So- 

 ciety a fhort defcription of it, with an abilract of its 

 hiftory. 



It is fituated an the road between Bdhlae and Cdbidy 

 and they reckon eight manzi/s or days' journey from 

 Cabu-l to Bdmfyan. From Cabul to Carabaug, there are 

 four man%lls N. N. W : from Carabaug to the pafs of 

 Sheybar^ tv^o tiiojizHs, inclining a little more to the wefti 

 hence to the fort of Zohauk one maiizil, courfe north- 

 weft from Zohauk to Bdmiyan one 7nanx.ii. Like Thebes 

 in Egypt, it is entirely cut out of an infulated mountains 

 the yalley round it is called, in the language of the 

 country, the Tdgavi of Bdiniyan. In this mountainous 

 country, where the valleys alone are inhabited, the 

 word Tdgdvt \s become fynonymous with Purganah or 

 diftFidt. To the fouth of it, or nearly fo, at the dif- 

 tance of about two miles are the ruins of an ancient 

 city, Galled Ghulghuleh, which, according to tradition, 

 was dcftroyed at a very early period by (he Mu/ulmans . 

 There arc the ruias of feveral buildings of niafonry 

 round a fmall conical hill, on the fummit of which 

 are the remains of the palace of its ancient kings. A 

 rivulet, rifing in the adjacent bills, goes through the 

 luins of Ghulghuleh and the Tdgd^io[ Bdmiyan, and falls 



into 



