92 Notes on Archeological Remains at Shah ki Dheri. [No. 2, 



tion. Perhaps then the locality or country was expressly set apart 

 for. the deposit of propitiatory offerings " to all the Buddhas" par- 

 ticularly as the whole of the surrounding country from Khurram 

 Gujar on the one side and Khanptir on the other, is dotted with 

 small topes,* the majority of which have heen almost entirely de- 

 molished by zamindars and others, in search of coins and relics 

 which are eagerly bought by dealers in the town of Kawal Pindi. 

 IV. — General Cunningham has translated the word utarena pra- 

 ehu in the inscription, as North West, for no other reason as far as 



I can see, than because the inscription was stated to have been 

 found at Hasan Abdal, north west of Manikyala, which he thenf 

 believed was the site of Taxila ; but the inscription was not found 

 at Hasan Abdal at all, as has already been stated, but at a place 

 called Topi to the North East of Kot Atial, which is now believed to 

 be the spot where Taxila once existed. Professor Dowson asserts 

 that the letters " of the word prachu (east) are as perfect and dis- 

 w tinct as any in the whole inscription and they form most unequi- 



II vocally the word^>rac/m." 



V. — In the itinerary of the Chinese traveller, Hwan Thsang, Tan- 

 chashilo, or Taxila, is described to be on the boundary of India 

 towards the north, and a dependency of Cashmere. Certain slokas 

 in the Paniayana also allude to Taxila (Taksliilla) as a dependency 

 of Cashmere, and in the latter it is stated that the name of the 

 town is derived from the founders of it, viz., Takshan, the son of 

 Bharata ; but it is possible that the name may be derived from 

 Tahsh, a celebrated serpent-god, and rila a stone or rock : the hill 

 overhanging the valley of Kot Atial having a serpentine appear- 

 ance, as viewed by me from Khurram Gujar. Or the name of the 

 town may have originated from a passage cut through the hill like 

 the Margalla Pass in the vicinity, from tahsh, to cleave, and sila, 

 a stone. 



VI. — When Alexander the Great halted at Taxila to refresh his 



* General Cunningham in 1864 found the remains of 58 small topes at and 

 near Shah ki Dheri. 



f Subsequently in a letter, dated 23rd January, 1864, to the address of Col. 

 E. Maclagan, Secretary to Government, P. "W. D. } Punjab, the General declar- 

 ed that the ruins in the neighbourhood of Shah ki Dheri were almost certain- 

 ly the remains of Taxila. 



