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III. The Five Rivers of the Buddhists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

W. Hoey
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Extract

Fa-Hian tells us that a journey of four yojanas to the east from Vaiśālī brought him to “the confluence of the five rivers,” and that then, crossing the river (the Ganges) and going south for one yojana, he arrived at Pāṭaliputra in the kingdom of Magadha.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , January 1907 , pp. 41 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1907

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References

page 43 note 1 The Indus (Sindhu) issues from the lion's mouth. Hence that river is called Siṅk kā bāb, the lion's gate or mouth.

page 44 note 1 It is to be noted that at a point about sixteen miles above the confluence of the Gogra and the Rāptī, and near a place called Muhoolah, just west of Dohri, in the Azamgarh district, there branches off to the south and south-east a river, shown in Indian Atlas Sheet No. 103 as ‘Surjoo Nuddee,’ which flows into the Ganges at Ballia. It is not an insignificant stream; the Gazetteer of the Ballia district tells us, on p. 128, that it is “navigable for large country vessels for five or six months in the year and for small boats all the year round.” And it may be added that, at the place where this river leaves the Gogra, the latter river has to be strongly embanked and protected by spurs to keep it to its present course. The plans and estimates have passed through me officially. In fact, the people of the Azamgarh and Ballia districts allege that the ‘Surjoo Nuddee’ runs in the original bed of the Gogra, and it is feared that the latter river may so break its present south bank as to return wholly to its old course. It is not impossible that in ancient times, and in fact in the days of Fa-hian and Hiuen Tsiang, this Sarju Nuddee was the real bed of the Gogra; that there was then no stream between Muhoolah-Dohri and Barhaj; and that consequently the Gogra had its confluence with the united Ganges and Jamnā at Ballia, and the Rāptī had its own separate confluence with the united three streams near Revilgañj. I show the Surjoo Nuddee by a dotted line in the annexed sketch-map.

page 44 note 2 This form was evidently borrowed from the same form established many long years ago in the case of the river Mahī of Western India, which flows into the Oulf of Cambay.

page 45 note 1 In the Indian Atlas Sheet, No. 103 of 1857, with additions to 1895, the name Mahī is not shown, and the course of the river is given under the name of ‘Kuthar N(uddee).’

page 45 note 2 There is another Sāraṅgpur exactly 25 miles due west of this, on the GaṇḌakī.