Uttarakhand 195
field for supremacy, and in time the former gave pkce to the
latter but soon this short lived glory was blown away by the
increasing growth of Tantrik cults both within the Brahmanism
,-and Buddhism. What has been described above as the Bon
religion of Tibet had its counterpart in India in the horrible and
•diabolical worship known as the Tantrik cult which revelled in
"•obscenity, immorality, lust and all forms of wickedness and even
in murder and human sacrifice, setting up for itself goddesses of
revolting form and of abominable character, such as Kali, Durga,
•Chandi. They believed in five M's of meat of fish, meat of flesh,
•madness of wine, mating sexually with women and mystic
mummery.
The visit of the Huen Tsang
Huen Tsang visited this part of the country in 634 A, D. and
•proceeded from Thaneshwar to Strughana in Saharanpore and
across the Ganges to Madawar in the Bijnore district. He descri-
bed Mayura and Mayapur close to Haridwar. He has also given
vivid description of his journey to Po-no-ki-mo-pore-lo or
Brahmapore, which lay 50 miles north of Madawar. Cunningham
was the first to place Brahmapore in Garhwal about which he
observed that the western bearing is certainly erroneous, as it
would have carried the pilgrim across the Ganges and trek again
into Strughana. We must, therefore^ tread north-east, the direc-
tion that once formed the famous kingdom of Katyuris. Besides
this kingdom the Chinese traveller described another kingdom
which was known as Son-fa-la-na-kie-Tn-Co or Suvarnagotra,
because gold of superior quality was produced here. The king-
dom was ruled by a woman. It touched Tibetan country in
the east, Khotanin the North and SAN-Po-Ho-OR-Lowp/b
{Himachal Pradesh) in the west. This description fits with the
kingdom of Katyuris which had its capital at Joshimath or
'Kartipura. However, it is just possible that the Brahmapura of
Huen Tsang was the Barahut in Uttarkashi district. Some scho*
to have suggested certain other locations including Dr. Goetz
who takes it to be Chamba, a theory which does not corroborate
with the description of the Chinese traveller. The reference to
Suvarnagotra or 'gold country" has been taken by Goetz. to be
for Santhal in Tibet Atkinson placed it to the north of Gma