Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Part I History Literature &c. 1872

With the bxception of the solitary mountain rock of Bihar the country present! an almost unbroken plain sloping gradually from the foot of the Rajagriha Hills (which form the southern boundary of the sub-division) down to the banks of the Ganges. [...] 211 north of these-places lies Bihar once the academia or vihira of the country south of the Ganges and still later the metropolis of the Muhammadan lieutenants who sometimes ruled this garden of India as the delegates of the emperor of Datil sometimes of the kings of Bengal. [...] According to Hwen Thsang he had transferred his capital from the old city in the valley of the five hills which as the Bumese writer expresses it surrounded it like a cow-pen to a new town in the open plain just outside the ravine which led to the metropolis of his forfathers." The translator of the Life of Hwen Thsang* gives the following account of the circumstance which led to the c [...] The ruins of Rajagrilia may conveniently be classified under two heads : 1st the remains of the more ancient city—Kusagaraptira—situated within the Valley of the Five Hills ; 2nd those of the more modern city Thijagriha which are found in the plain to the north of the mountains. [...] Its height is very imposing.' The walls of the town and its gates are distinctly traceable at the ditance of about half a mile from the Coot of the mountain and directly facing the northern entrance of the Valley of the Five Bills.