326 INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 



studies of antiquaries and historians - ]-. General Cunningham was 

 placed in charge of the operations. His first investigations lay in 

 the country adjoining the course of the Ganges, and forming the 

 ancient kingdom of Magadha, the centre of Indian Buddhism 

 during its period of ascendency. During this early epoch, two 

 Chinese pilgrims, Fa Hian (A.D. 399-414) and Hwen Thsang 

 (A.D. 629-45) visited India, and the localities, cities, and monuments 

 described by them form important historical and topographic 

 landmarks, which it has been the special aim of modern students and 

 comparative geographers to identify. General Cunningham has 

 observed that as Pliny follows the route of Alexander, so an 

 inquirer into Indian archeology should tread in the footsteps of the 

 two Chinese pilgrims, Fa Hian and Hwen Thsang. Dr. Burgess, 

 too, remarks that there was no Indian Herodotus, Strabo, or 

 Pausanias, and that we learn more of the history and ancient 

 geography of India from these two Chinese travellers than from the 

 whole vast field of Sanskrit literature. 



During his first season, 1861-62, General Cunningham identified 

 a number of ruins of Buddhist structures, especially at Buddha 

 Gaya, which, owing to the number and importance of its remains, 

 has since at intervals occupied the attention of himself and his 

 assistants. The following season was spent mainly at Kalsi, where 

 an impression of King Asoka's inscription, containing the names of 

 five Grecian kings was taken, and at Mathura and at Delhi. The Punjab 

 was the scene of General Cunningham'. - ? explorations in 1863-64, 

 during which he made good progress in identifying the cities and 

 peoples described in the expedition of Alexander the Great from 

 the west bank of the Indus downwards, examining every site 

 mentioned either by the Greek writers or by Hwen Thsang, and 

 giving detailed accounts of Taxila, Manikyala, and of the scene 

 of Alexander's great battle with Poms on the Jehlam. The work 

 of the following season lay among the ancient cities between the 



* Lord Canning's minute, dated 22nd January 1862, said, - II will nut be to our 



" credit, as an enlightened ruling power, if we continue to allow such fields of 



" investigation as the remains of the old Buddhist capital of Bihar, the vast ruins of 



•• Kanauj, the plains round Delhi, studded with ruins more thickly than even the 



" Campagna of Home, and many others, io remain without more examination than 



" they have hLherto received Everything that has hitherto been done in this way 



■• has been done by private persons, imperfectly, an 1 without system. It is impossible 



•• not to feel that there are European Governments, which, if they had held our rule 



" in India, would not ha\e allowed this to be said." 



