But a better argument is this,--that the river Sone has no particular sanctity attached to it by the Hindoos; it does not convey sacred water to the district of Patna, such as is supposed to flow in the Ganges, and many other Indian rivers. We know that the most sacred streams issue from the Himalaya mountains, the region of the gods and of Brahma. The Ganges, the Indus, the Jumna, the Gograh, the Coosah, the Gundruk, and others, come from that holy source; but the Sone and the Nerbudda rise in the table-land of Omerkuntuc in Gundwana,--in lat. 22°, 35´ N.; long. 82°, 15´ E.[84] Now it is very certain that the Sone, lacking this sacred character, could not have been reckoned as the third river in India; superior to many streams which take their rise from the Himalaya, and inferior only to the Ganges and the Indus, both of which are regarded with the deepest reverence. Thus, with regard to Patna, we are led to the conclusion, that, while there is great evidence to prove that it is a most ancient city, and to identify it with the former Pataliputra, the capital of the Gupta dynasty; yet it is quite as clear that it is not the site of Palibothra. Another opinion, however, would place the ancient city further east, and not far from Bhaugulpore.[85] The late Colonel Francklin took a journey on purpose to examine this subject, and in his preface to the second part of his researches respecting the site of Palibothra, he writes:--"If then my assumption of the Mandara hill as the place recorded in the Puranas,[86] where one of the sovereigns of Palibothra was assassinated, be correct;--if the evidence afforded by the hills which appear in the neighbourhood of the town, and through a very great extent of what formerly constituted the Prasian kingdom, prior to the expedition of Alexander the Great;--if these and other connecting circumstances, as well local and historical, as traditional, be conceded;--it will, I think, be also conceded to me, that they apply in every instance throughout the discussion, as more naturally indicative of the town of Bhaugulpore possessing the site of Palibothra, and the metropolis of the Parsii (Prasii?) than either Rajmahal, Patna, Kanoge, or Allahabad." The argument drawn from the assassination of this king of Palibothra on the Mandara hill, is really worth nothing. The circumstance that this took place near Bhaugulpore no more proves the site of Palibothra to have been there, than if the sovereign had been assassinated at any other of the places named. For if kings travel, particularly among enemies, and in times of anarchy, they are liable to be killed anywhere. Our first Richard was assassinated in Normandy, and our first Edward had a narrow escape in the Holy Land. Moreover, this murdered king of Palibothra might have been taken to the Mandara hill as a fitting place of execution; so that we can gather from this occurrence no clue whatever, to the actual site of his capital city.