84 
W. Hoey — Identification of Kusinara, Vaisali, [No. 1, 
’O-ye-mu-khi. The first thing to observe is that the Life of Hweii 
Thsang shows that he travelled by boat on the Ganges. He must have 
used a boat to cross from Kanauj on his way to Newal. He was 
certainly on a boat when attacked by the river-dacoits while on his 
way from ’0-yu-t’o to ’0-ye-mu-khi. No place that he mentions 
between Newal and Prayaga can have been very far from the Ganges. 
The Life differs from the Travels in important details. If we read 
the latter alone it would seem that Hwen Thsang speaks as if he was 
reckoning from Newal to ’0-yu-t’o, while the Life represents as a 
starting point the Bhadra Vihara where the pilgrims had stayed for 
three months at Kanauj. These apparently trivial variations are 
important, because they affect the position of ’0-yu-t’o with reference 
to the Ganges. Anyhow the distances are 600 li to ’0-yu-t’o, 300 li 
to ’0-ye-mu-khi and thence 700 to Allahabad. The direction of the 
intermediate length is described as East. The general direction of the 
Ganges between Kanauj and Allahabad is S. E. There is a stretch of 
the river roughly W. to E. between Baksar Ghat and Dalman. The 
last named place is the spot where Dalabhya Rsi spent his life and 
west of it a few miles is Chilanla, a name which recalls the Shi-lo-ta-lo 
of the pilgrim. This is the traditional abode of the Rsi Cyavana, 
restored to youth by the A 9 vins, A little farther west is Gagason, 
venerated by Hindus as the agrama of Garga, a muni who left a host of 
descendants ; and close to this again is Sinhaur, another place of great 
antiquity. Taking the Singhar Tara crossing near Sinhaur crossing and 
crossing south of the river we reach Tara Bhitaura or Bhati-ura, sup- 
posed to be a dwelling place of descendants of Bhrgu, and proceeding 
a few miles east we reach Asni, opposite Gagason. At Asni is the 
shrine^ of the Alvins, the twin sons of Surya (the sun) who are re- 
presented by two brass images with their hair coiled over their heads. 
The myth runs that these deities were born from the nostrils of a mare. 
May not ’0-ye-mu-khi be Agva-muhha, ‘the mare’s Head,’ and this 
cluster of sacred places be the kingdom referred to by the pilgrim. The 
story of the Rishi at Chilanla restored to youth by the A 9 vins may be 
another form of the narrative of the conversion of Buddha Simha and of 
the three pious Buddhists who made the bargain about reappearing 
after death. Anyhow these places are connected and mark what may 
have been regarded by Hwen Thsang as a kingdom with its capital on 
the northern bank of the Ganges, that on which the majority of the 
shrines lies. 
1 A modern shrine built by the late Maharajah of Benares, but the place was 
known as Asni long before. It may be that Asanga and his brother were remem- 
bered here as “ The pair of brothers.” 
