Page:Report of a Tour Through the Bengal Provinces of Patna, Gaya, Mongir and Bhagalpur; The Santal Parganas, Manbhum, Singhbhum and Birbhum; Bankura, Raniganj, Bardwan and Hughli in 1872-73.djvu/7

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PREFACE.
vii

discussion that the old course of the Son flowed, past the southern side of the city, then the Son, on which Pâṭaliputra stood, must be the same river as the Erannoboas, on which Palibothra stood.

To the south of Patna Mr. Beglar visited Telâdha or Telâṛa, a place which Mr. Broadley has described, and which I have identified with the Ti-lo-tse-kia of Hwen Thsang. Mr. Fergusson has objected to this identification that I “persist” in calling the monastery Tilaḍaka, “though M. Julien calls it Tilaçakya.[1] It is true that M. Julien so names it in two places (I, 139, and II, 439); but in a third place (I, 211) he calls it Tilaṭaka, and in his index, at the end of volume III, he gives both readings, Ti-lo-tse-kia or Tiladhaka, and Ti-lo-shi-kia or Ti-la-ça-kia. But with regard to this latter reading he adds: “mais peut-etre que dans ce mot, ou chi (ça) a le même groupe phonetique que tse (dha), it faut reconnaître la transcription fautive de Tiladhaka.” Here it will be seen that M. Julien himself gives the preference to the reading of Tiladaka which 1 have adopted, and as the Chinese syllable tse is the usual representative of the Sanskrit cerebral d or t (just as we say nashion for nation), I thought it very probable that it was the same place as the Tillâra of our maps. The proper name of this place is Telâḍha, the Tillaṛa of Mr. Broadley. Here Mr. Beglar found the short inscription which Mr. Broadley describes as illegible, but in which he read the word Samvat. The inscription is on the architrave of the entrance to an old Masjid which is built of Hindu materials. It opens with tho words Sri Telâḍhaka; and there is no trace whatever of the word Samvat. During the past cold season I paid a visit to Telâḍha where I obtained a small Buddhist figure, with an inscription round the head opening with the words—

Telâḍhaka vâstavyam.

With these two ancient evidences of the old name of Telâḍhaka, and with the modern spelling of the name as


  1. Royal Asiatic Society Journal N.S. VI,–222.