168 Report of the Archaeological Survey. [No. 3, 



stands a huge quartz boulder covered with one of the well known 

 inscriptions of Asoka. The inscribed rock is situated close to the 

 little villages of Byas and Haripur, and about one mile and a half to the 

 south of the large and well known village of Khalsi, by which name 

 I propose to distinguish this copy of Asoka's edicts from those of 

 Kapurdagiri, Junagiri, Rohitds, and Ganjam. In speaking of Firuz 

 Shah's Pillar at Delhi, which we know was brought from the foot of 

 the hills on the western bank of the Jumna near Khidrabad, I have 

 already identified the district of Khalsi with part of the ancient kingdom 

 of Srughna, as described by Hwen Thsang. As my reasons for com- 

 ing to this conclusion are based entirely upon the statements of the 

 Chinese pilgrim, it is necessary that they should be given in detail. 



186 On leaving Sthdneswara or Thdnesar Hwen Thsang records 

 that he went 400 li, or 66 miles, to the westward, to the kingdom of 

 Su-lu-kin-na. or Surghna, which he describes as being bounded by the 

 Ganges on the east, and by high mountains on the north, and as being 

 watered by the Jumna, which ran through the midst of it. The Capital, 

 which was 20 li, or upwards of three miles, in circuit, was situated 

 immediately on the west bank of the Jumna, and although much ruined, 

 its foundations were still standing. Amongst other monuments it 

 possessed a Stupa of King Asoka. The direction given by Hwen 

 Thsang is undoubtedly wrong, as the Jumna is not more than 24 

 miles distant from Thanesar towards the east. But the mention of the 

 hills shows most clearly that the bearing should be north-east, and as 

 the recorded distance of the Jumna at the foot of the hills agrees with 

 the actual distance, the situation of the Capital of Srughna must be 

 looked for along the western bank of the Jumna, somewhere between 

 Khalsi and Khidrabad. At first I was inclined to fix the position of 

 the Capital in the immediate neighbourhood of the inscribed rock of 

 Khalsi, but I could neither find nor hear of any ruins in its vicinity, 

 and the distance is besides too great, being, 71 miles in a direct line, 

 or about 80 miles by the road. If Hwen Thasng's distance is correct, 

 the most probable position of the Capital is Paota, on the right bank 

 of the Jumna, which is 57 miles distant from Thdnesar in a direct line, 

 or about 65 miles by the road. I believe also that Paota is the very place 

 from whence Firuz Shah removed the Delhi column, for the name of its 

 original site is variously written as Taopar, or Topara, or Taoparsuk } any 



