702 Coins of Indian Buddhist Satraps. [No. 7. 



present day) to the south-east of the northern frontier of Taxila. 

 The pilgrim had already visited the districts on the western bank of 

 the Indus, and was now on his way from Taxila to Cashmere. For 

 Sin-thu I would read the Sohan or Swan river, the Soamus of Arrian, 

 beyond which the pilgrim arrived at a great gate of stone,* from 

 which at a distance of 20 li to the south-east was situated the tope 

 of the abandoned body. The high road from Taxila (or Manikyala), 

 after crossing the Swan river, leads through the narrow pass of 

 Margala, or snake's neck, to Hasan Abdal. This rocky pass I take 

 to be the "great stone gate" of Hwan Thsang, and the tope of 

 Belar, near Osman Khatir, which is only about four or five miles 

 distar 4 - T take to be the " tope of the abandoned body." From this 

 poL t uae district of TJ-la-shi bears north-east and not south-east. 



I take this opportunity of again stating my firm conviction that 

 Manikyala is the ancient Taxila. I do this because it has been 

 stated in this Journal on several occasions, that I consider Trahpari 

 to be the true site of Taxila.f On the contrary I have always 



* Stan. Julien, p. 89 — "une grande porte en pierre." Pass is perhaps the true 

 reading instead of gate ; for the two words are the same in different languages : 

 thus the Sanskrit dwdra, a door, is the Afghan darrd, a pass, a narrow valley, and 

 the Indian ghat, a pass, is the same word as the English gate. Dr. Atkinson 

 refers the name of Mar-gala to a great battle ; but the parallel names of Ghora- 

 gali, " or horse's neck," and Gidar-gali or "jackal's neck," applied to passes in 

 the same country, proves the correctness of my version. 



f I allude more particularly to Major Jas. Abbott's article on the battle-field of 

 Alexander and Porus which contains the above statement. Sir H. Elliot believed 

 that such was my opinion, and others may have done the same. In 1839 my 

 brother first informed me of the village Takhdla, and in 1848 I saw the village 

 myself, which is within musket-shot of the tope. I again repeat my belief that 

 this village preserves the name of the ancient Takkasila. Some further argu- 

 ments of Major Abbott's may he seen in this Journal for 1853, p. 573- He there 

 states that " in the name Maunkyala (read Manikyala) we have no resemblance to 

 that of Taxila." Granted : but Manikyala is only the name of a village in the 

 neighbourhood of the tope, and not the name of the tope itself. We know that the 

 name of Taxila is as old as Alexander, and that the establishment of the Buddhist 

 religion in Taxila is most probably not older than the reign of Asoka. There would 

 not therefore, be any connexion between the names of the tope and city. Major 

 Abbott thinks that the remains around Manikyala are " the ruins of the monastery 

 of Mainkialan described by Hwan Thsang." But there is a fatal objection to this 

 identification in the fact, that this monastery was in the valley of the Swat river, 

 to the west of the Indus. See Fo Kwe-ki Appendice 379. 



