1865.] Report of the Archceological Survey. 227 



286. As this legend of Bakula is sufficient to prove that the fa- 

 mous city of Kausambi was situated on the Jumna, it now only re- 

 mains to show that the distance of Kosam from Allahabad corresponds 

 with that between Prayag and Kosambi, as recorded by Hwen Thsang. 

 Unfortunately this distance is differently stated in the life and in the 

 travels of the Chinese pilgrim. In the former, the distance is given 

 as 50 li, and in the latter as 500 li, whilst in the return journey to 

 China, the pilgrim states that between Prayag and Kosambi he travel- 

 led for seven days through a vast forest and over bare plains. Now, as 

 the village of Kosam is only 31 miles from the fort of Allahabad, the 

 last statement would seem to preclude all possibility of its identifica- 

 tion with the ancient Kosambi. But strange to say, it affords the 

 most satisfactory proof of their identity ; for the subsequent route of the 

 pilgrim to Sankissa is said to have occupied one month, and as the 

 whole distance from Prayag to Sankissa is only 200 miles, the average 

 length of the pilgrim's daily march was not more than 5 J miles. This 

 slow progress is most satisfactorily accounted for, by the fact that the 

 march from Prayag to Sankissa was a religious procession, headed by 

 the great King Harsha Vardhana of Kanoj, with a train of no less 

 than 18 tributary Kings, besides many thousands of Buddhist monks, 

 and all the crowd of an Indian camp. According to this reckoning, 

 the distance from Prayag to Kosambi would be 38 miles, which cor- 

 responds very closely with the actual road distance as I found it. By 

 one route on going to Kosam, I made the distance 37 miles, and by 

 the return route 35 miles. The only probable explanation of Hwen 

 Thsang's varying distances of 50 li and 500 li that occurs to me is, 

 that as he converted the Indian Yojanas into Chinese li at the rate of 

 40 li per Yojana, or of 10 li per kos, he must have written 150 li, 

 the equivalent to 15 Jcos, which is the actual distance across the fields 

 for foot passengers from Kosam to the fort of Allahabad, according to 

 the reckoning of the people of Kosam itself. But whether this expla- 

 nation be correct or not, it is quite certain that the present Kosam 

 stands on the actual site of the ancient Kosambi ; for not only do the 

 people themselves put forward this claim, but it is also distinctly 

 stated in an inscription of the time of Akbar, which is recorded on the 

 great stone pillar, still standing in the midst of the ruins, that this is 

 Kausambi pur a. 



287, The present ruins of Kosambi consist of an immense fortress 



29 



