1845.] the River Soane and Site of Palibothra. 139 



above quoted. " The Son, according to the Bengal atlas, formerly join- 

 ed the Ganges at Maner, but a tongue of land has been formed project- 

 ing east from the Shahabad district, so that Maner is now three miles 

 at least above the junction of the two rivers. The Son receives no 

 branch during its course in these districts, but sends off some old 

 channels that in different places are called by its name. The chief of 

 these separates from the river 11 or 12 miles above Maner, runs 

 straight east to the thanah of Vikram, and then bends north until 

 it passes Noubutpoor. Immediately beyond this it sends to the right 

 a branch*, which, running through the whole breadth of the division 

 of B&kipoor, joins the dry channel of the Ganges, and is called Mo- 

 hauleya. The main channel of the Mar-Sont, soon after the separation 

 of the Mohauleya, divides into two branches, which re- unite before they 

 fall into the Ganges at DanapurJ. That to the west is called Deonar, 

 that to the east Bhadaiya. It must, however, be observed that an 

 old channel may be traced running from this Mar-Son, and parallel to 

 the Ganges, a great part of the way to Bakipur, near the western 

 extremity of the Patna city, and this may have been the old channel 

 of the Son; and Patna may, therefore, have been once at the junc- 

 tion of this river with the Ganges." 



This account, though differing in some particulars from that of the 

 survey, agrees generally as to the fact of the confluence of the two 

 rivers having been at Bakipoor near Patna ; and this fact corroborated 

 by so many separate investigations made at different times,by different 

 individuals, may therefore be considered as fully established. The 

 alteration in the course of the Soane is supposed to have taken place in 

 the time of Shah Shuruf Oodeen Ahmud Ehya Muneeree, 781 Hije- 

 ree, corresponding with 1379 A. D. The following extract§, from 

 the Memoirs of the Emperor Baber, proves that in the time of that 

 monarch the Soane flowed by Muneer in 1529 A. D., and so far cor- 

 roborates the tradition of its having changed its course about the end 

 of the fourteenth century. The "Mudra Rakshasa" shows that the 



* Buchanan seems here to have been misinformed, and to have alluded to the 

 branch which separates at Phoolwaree, instead of at Noubutpoor. 

 t " Mar," means dead or dry Soane. 

 X Dinapoor. 

 § Page 4>\2, Erskine's Translation. 



