258 On the Sites of Nikaia and BouJtephalon. [No. 3. 



party that visited Manikyala saw no other vestiges of an ancient city 

 than the tope : but in this they were deceived by the hurried nature 

 of their excursion : they had not time to search, and rather hastily 

 inferred that nothing was to be found. Twelve years afterwards 

 Moorcroft crossing the spot was informed that old wells, fragments of 

 pottery and ancient coins were frequently discovered. Lieut. Burnes 

 obtained while there, old coins and antiques ; and M. Court, whose 

 opportunities have been still more propitious to discovery, describes 

 the neighbourhood as strewed with ruins, the remains of massive walls, 

 of old wells and of tombs and temples. He found also and opened no 

 fewer than fifteen topes."* 



Now, these ruins have been three times sought for by me without 

 success. A very few Cashmerian and Buddhist coins are found in the 

 neighbourhood, as in every old village in this Doaba, but nothing that 

 can justify the belief that a city was ever in the neighbourhood. The 

 only ruins I could find of tombs were those of Sooltan Audum and his 

 successors, Gukkas, at Rabaht, dating back to the 16th century. That 

 Manikyala is an old Buddhist site is without doubt. But that it ever 

 was a city there is not only no proof, but absolutely no probability, 

 and the Buddhist era is considerably posterior to the invasion of 

 Alexander. Hear what the Chinese traveller Hiang Tsang says of 

 Manikyala : " Au sud de Mengholi, Manghul, a 400 li mont Yilo 

 ( Jilha perhaps) et a 200 li grande foret Mahafanaf (Mahabunn). De 

 la au nord ouest a 30 au 40 li, Maiukialan, monastere des Feves. De 

 la a l'ouest, a 60 ou 70 li, monastere fonde par Asoka," the last being 

 the great tope on the Western bank of the river Sohaun, and both 

 topes having been the sites of Buddhist monasteries, not of cities. 



* Any reader might suppose that M. Court had found fifteen topes at or close to 

 Manikyala. But the nearest tope to the grand tope of Manikyala is that West of it, 

 about nine miles on the right bank of the Sohaun river, and the remaining fourteen 

 topes were probably those of Khaunpore distant Westward from Manikyala about 

 forty miles. 



t It is difficult to say where this Mahabunn, great forest, lay. Mt. Mahabunn 

 lies about 200 li from Mahugul, but due West, not South. This Mahabunn seems 

 to have been intermediate between Mahugul and Mt. Tilha, a celebrated Teerut, i. e. 

 close to Manikyala. The country at present has no forest, though abundance of 

 thorny jungle. 



