Of the opinions on this subject, which I deem erroneous, the only other worthy of mention is that which makes Kanoge the site of Palibothra. This is also a very ancient city, as is clear from the fact that Vicramaditya,[88] who lived in the year B.C. 57, resided alternately at Palibothra and at Kanoge. It is stated by Heeren[89] to have been founded by one of the kings of Ayodhya (Oude) who made it his capital. On the decline of Ayodhya, it rose in importance. Maurice[90] dates its foundation in B.C. 1000. But while we may respect the antiquity of Kanoge, we cannot assign to it the honour claimed for it. The rivers Ramgonga and Gurrah, whose united waters flow into the Ganges near its ruins, are very inconsiderable, and could not by any stretch of the imagination be looked upon as constituting the third river in India.
But now, having, as I hope, clearly shown the great improbability that any of the opinions already quoted are correct, and having proved also, how irreconcilable they are to the historical evidence which we possess on this subject, I will mention my own opinion as to the site of the ancient city of Palibothra. According to Arrian, as we have seen, Palibothra is at the confluence of the Ganges and Erannoboas, which Erannoboas is said to be the third river in India. Now the Ganges is called the first, the Indus the second, and in respect of size, no other river has so great a claim to be ranked the third, as the Jumna. After the two streams just mentioned, the Jumna is certainly the largest in the country. This river and the Ganges may be termed twin-sisters, as their respective sources are within a few miles of each other. Its length is 780 miles, according to Rennel, exceeding by 280 miles that of the Sone.
Coming down to the point at which the Jumna flows into the Ganges, we find the city of Allahabad. And here I would place the site of Palibothra. Its centrical position as to Hindoostan, marks it as being most fitting and convenient for the capital of a kingdom. It is certain also that it was inhabited by the Prasii, and it was most probably in the very centre of their dominions.
The great sanctity of the confluence of the Ganges and the Jumna at Allahabad, as an annual bathing-place, revered by all Hindoos, is well known. The very fact of their being two great rivers, the first and the third in magnitude, would give it a sacredness not attachable to inferior rivers. The second river, the Indus, falls into no other stream. It is joined by the Cabool river at Attock, and after receiving the Punjaub rivers, empties itself into the sea. And the fact that the two greatest rivers are not confluent, tends, no doubt, to add to the high veneration with which the natives regard the confluence of the first and third rivers.
Several of the streams flowing into the Ganges which have been adopted by controversialists, are in reality very insignificant, and are considered by the natives as quite unimportant. But the Jumna is universally known and venerated throughout all India. When water is taken from the Ganges, to a distance, it is invariably either from Hurdwar, Allahabad, or Benares.
The late Maharajah Runjeet Singh always had water from a particular spot, which was considered the best in the Punjaub. A strict Brahmin of Benares, would present his guests with water drawn from the most sacred parts of the Ganges, nor, however hot the weather, would he cool the water with ice, for by so doing, he would mix two waters, the one holy, the other profane: the water of the Ganges, and the water of America.
No native would ever take the Ganges water from near the Chundun; no Brahmin living in Calcutta would ever use it. Allahabad is held in such reverence that a public tax was paid both to the Mahomedan government of the Nawab of Oude, and to the British government, by pilgrims at certain seasons of the year. There are different degrees of sanctity ascribed to the sacred cities of India; all places are not of equal sanctity, Benares is not so sacred as Kanoge, and neither is so sacred as Allahabad. The waters of the Ganges at this confluence are accounted of superior holiness, and special virtue is ascribed to them.
Here then, the description of Arrian, to which I have shown that none of the before-mentioned opinions conformed, is fully answered, and all probability points to Allahabad as the disputed site. The central situation of the city, its position on the right bank of the Ganges, the circumstance of its superior sacredness, and above all, the fact that the Jumna is the third river in India, which no one, who will compare the relative claims of the rivers, can deny; all these together yield more than presumptive proof in its favour. We may fairly conclude then, that the ancient Palibothra is at the junction of the Ganges and the Jumna, and that there appears no just ground for supposing that any other position on the right or left bank of the Ganges can be assigned as its site.
It may now be of interest to state what is known respecting the size of the city. Strabo informs us[91] that "its length is eighty stadia, its breadth fifteen,[92] and its form oblong; that it is environed by a wall of wood, in which are sundry holes to shoot through; also a ditch, both for the defence of the city and the reception of all the filth issuing from it; and that the people are called Prasii." In an appendix to his work, Francklin gives additional notes, extracted from a pamphlet which was printed, but not published, at Calcutta, wherein he says: "For the extent of the city and suburbs of Palibothra, from seventy-five to eighty miles have been assigned, by the Puranas, a distance said to be impossible for a single city." And adds: "so indeed it might, were we to compare the cities of Asia with those of Europe." He next states, that in A.D. 1567, Cæsar Frederic, a Venetian merchant, who was then at Beejanuggur (Bisnuggur), says that it had a circuit of ninety-four miles. Major Rennel makes the city of Gour, the ancient capital of Bengal, to be fifteen miles in length, extending along the old banks of the Ganges, and from two to three miles in breadth. Colonel Francklin (Appendix p. 59) quotes Babylon[93] as extending over 365 furlongs, being the number of days in the year; or forty-five miles and five furlongs. Herodotus allows the city to have been 480 stadia, or sixty miles in circumference.[94] Colonel Francklin makes Kanoge to have been 100 miles in circuit. London, the largest city in Europe, has been estimated at twenty-five, but at present, with the suburbs, it may be thirty miles round. Now it must be recollected, that in estimating the size of European and Asiatic cities, several distinguishing circumstances are to be borne in mind. For instance, though in London there are numerous churches, they occupy but little space, compared with pagodas, mosques, and mausolea; to which in an Eastern city, much ground and many buildings are usually attached. In Oriental cities too, there are many gardens and granaries, and the stables and studs for elephants occupy a great deal of room. It is calculated that the stabling for one elephant, occupies more space than would afford accommodation for a carriage and four horses.
The Mahomedan invasion of India, which effected so great a change in the character of the country, took place in the first quarter of the eleventh century. The Mahomedan empire was founded there by the Ghorè dynasty in 1157. I may fitly close my remarks on the site of this ancient city, by glancing at the geographical extent and condition of the country at this great era of a mighty change in Indian history. It is said by Rennel and other writers, that according to the testimony of the ancients, India, on the most enlarged scale, divided on the West from Persia by the Arachosian Mountains, bounded on the East by China, on the North by Tartary, and extending South to the Sunda Isles, comprised an area of 40°, including a superficies almost as large as Europe: a statement which appears preposterous. The Mahomedan writers understood Hindoostan, under the sovereigns of Delhi, to include the twelve Soobahs or Provinces into which it was sub-divided in 1582; viz., Lahore, Mooltan, Scinde, Ajmere, Delhi, Agra, Allahabad, Bahar, Oude, Bengal, Malwah, Guzerat; Cabool, and the country west of India, was made a thirteenth Soobah, and again others were added: namely, the Deccan, including Berar, Khandeish, and Ahmednuggur, and afterwards Aurungabad.