THE OLD AND NEW CAPITALS. 
1899.] 
139 
Even in Kalliana’s own time pious foundations are recorded at this 
ancient site. 
The identity of Pandrethan with the site named in the Chronicle 
as ‘ the Old Capital ’ is proved by ample evidence. It is indicated in 
the old gloss on Rajat. v. 267 and is still known to Pandit tradition. 
STivara in describing the flight of some troops which had been defeated 
in Srinagar and were retiring along the Vitasta to the east, speaks of 
the road from the Samudramatha (Sud a rmar on the right bank of the 
river near the second bridge) to Purvddhisthdva as covered with the 
corpses of the slain. 1 It is clear that by the latter designation which 
also means ‘the Old Capital,’ he refers to our present Pandrethan. 
This name itself is the direct phonetic derivative of Puranadhisthchia . 2 
90 . General Cunningham has assumed that ‘the Old Capital’ 
, _ _ marked by the site of Pandrethan was in 
Aso a s Srinagar!. rea jHy the ancient S'rInagarT which Kalhana 
mentions as the capital founded by the great Asoka. 3 * * * * 8 His assumption 
was based on another passage of the Chronicle which mentions the 
foundation of the shrine of Jyestharudra at STlnagari by Jalauka, the 
son of Asoka. General Cunningham thought he could recognize this 
shrine in the extant temple on the top of the Takht-i Sulaiman hill, 
below which at a distance of about one and a half miles Pandrethan 
is situated. 
I have shown in my note on the passage that no reliance can be 
placed on the alleged tradition which General Cunningham had adduced 
as the sole proof of his location of the shrine. Yet at the same time 
the evidence recorded by me proves that Jyestharudra must have been 
worshipped either on the hill itself or in its close vicinity. Accordingly 
Asoka’s STlnagari may safely be looked for in the same neighbourhood. 
Our present data do not allow us to decide with absolute certainty 
whether its site was at Pandrethan or elsewhere. But there are at 
least sufficient indications to make General Cunningham’s view appear 
very tempting and probable. 
1 See S'nv. iv, 290. 
2 The Ks. derivative of Skr. Purdna is pr<z«* ‘old’; this forms, with assimilation 
of the initial double consonant, the first part, Pan -, of the modern name. The elision 
of the second d in the assumed intermediary form # P[u]rdn[d]dethan is accounted 
for by the influence of the stress accent which lies on the second syllable of the 
modern name. The development of the combination nd into ndr is paralleled by 
similar cases in other Indo-Aryan Vernaculars; comp. Dr. Grierson, Phonology of 
Indo-Aryan Vernaculars, Z.D.M.Q., 1. p. 37, § 115. The nazalisation of e may be of 
recent date, as the old gloss of A 2 on Rajat. v. 267 shows the name as Pdmydrthan , 
i. e. Pan'drethan. 
8 See Note C, i. 124. 
