1848.] through Ariana and India. 479 



two places. So far from its being a fort, we know from Edrisi that it 

 was only a good sized town with "mud walls" (murs en terre). It 

 could not therefore have been called Kilah Semengan ; and the conse- 

 quent deduction that the Chinese syllables Kelu represent the Arabic 

 word Kilah (fort) must be abandoned. 



2nd. Thse-kia. Major Anderson identifies this place with Shikdrpur, 

 but Hwan Thsang's distances and directions give it a very different 

 position. On the west was the river Sin-tu, the Sindhu or Indus ; 

 and on the east was the river Pi-po-che, the Vipdsa or Byds. As there 

 is no river to the eastward of the Indus at Shikarpur, the Major has 

 prudently passed over the Pi-po-che in silence. But Hwan Thsang 

 adds another important particular regarding the position of Thse-kia ; 

 namely, that at 14 or 15 li (about 2£ miles) to the South-West of it 

 stood the ancient town of Che ko-lo, with a stupa or tope which had 

 been built by Asoka. This is no doubt the Sdkala of the Mahabharat, 

 and the Sangala of Arrian and Q. Curtius. Its position to the West- 

 ward of the Byas agrees precisely with that assigned to the others ; 

 and the fact that Asoka built a Stupa there, proves that it was a place 

 of consequence within 50 years of Alexander's death. And now for 

 the first proof of the accuracy of Hwan Thsang's distances and 

 directions. Hwan Thsang states that to the Eastward of Thse- 

 kia at 500 li (about 83 miles) stood the monastery of Tha-mo- 

 su-fa-na, (foret obscure) and at 140, or 150 li (24 or 25 miles) 

 to the North-Eastward from the monastery, was the town of Che- 

 lan-tha-lo, or Jalandhara. The monastery must therefore have 

 been near the present Dakhani Serai, on the Kali-Vehi river, and 

 Thse-kia, and Che-ko-lo must have been in the neighborhood of 

 Lahore and Amritsar. Now from Dakhani Serai and Sultanpur, the 

 whole of the Western Doab-i-Jdlandhara-pita is covered with a thick 

 jungle, from which the monastery no doubt took its name of Tha-mo- 

 see-fa-na, or " foret obscure," from ?r*n? tamos, darkness, and ^r, 

 vana, a jangal. The actual position of Che-ko-lo, Stigala or Sangala, 

 I cannot at present determine, but we have no less than three distinct 

 authorities, all of whom agree in placing it to the westward of the 

 Byas, and on or near the high road leading across the Panjab. 



But the position of this place furnishes a second proof of the accura- 



