REMARKS ON
THE SITES AND NAMES OF THE PRINCIPAL PLACES MENTIONED IN THE LEGEND.
 
The identification of the places mentioned in the course of the Life of Gaudama is certainly a great desideratum. This difficult and laborious task has been boldly undertaken by several government servants of both services. Great and important successes have attended their efforts. One of the most successful among them has been Major-General Cunningham, the arch?ological surveyor to the government of India. The sphere of his laborious and scientific researches has extended over north and south Behar, the cradle of Buddhism, and some parts of the Punjaub and Peshawar. Under his direction excavations have been made, inscriptions found and deciphered, the nature and dimensions of old ruined monuments correctly ascertained. In his valuable reports may be found important elements for reconstructing the history and geography of ancient India. He has been greatly assisted by the history of the voyages of the Chinese pilgrim, Hwen Thsang, who spent sixteen years in travelling throughout India, and visiting all the places rendered famous by the actions connected with the life of Buddha, and the spread of his doctrines and institutions. The voyage began in 629 and ended in 645 of the Christian era. The itinerary[178] begins with the starting of the traveller from a city on the banks of the Hoang-ho. He shaped his course through the centre of Tartary, entered by the northern extremity of the plateau of Panin into what is called now Independent Tartary, visited Samarcand, where there were no Buddhists, but only fire worshippers. Thence he passed over to Balk, where he found religion in a flourishing condition. He ascended the mighty Hindu Kush mountains, penetrated into Cabul and Peshawar, crossed the Indus at Attock, and turning abruptly to the north, visited Oudiana, where he found dzedis and monasteries on the grandest and most magnificent scale, and came back to Attock, following the western bank of the Indus. He then proceeded through the Punjaub to Mathura, and minutely examined all the Buddhistic monuments to be found in the territories situated between the Ganges, the Gunduck, and Nepaul. He went to Benares, Pataliputra, and all the places in Magatha, or south Behar, where his religious curiosity could be satisfied. Thence he shaped his course in an eastern direction, and visited the whole of Bengal. He passed to Orissa, visited many places in Central India and a portion of the Upper Deccan. He went to Molwa and Guzerat, returned to Magatha, and began his homeward voyage. He recrossed the Indus at Attock, followed up the valley of the Cabul river, and with unheard-of difficulties and dangers passed over the Hindu Kush range. His route across Chinese Tartary led him back through Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan, to his native place.
 
It is a matter of surprise to see how acute in his observations, correct in his descriptions, and exact in his measurements, our pilgrim has been. With his book in hand, the above-named eminent arch?ologist was enabled, in many instances, to identify at once mere mounds of ruins, and satisfy himself that they were the remnants of the monuments described by our pilgrim. When he entertained any doubts in his mind, he had recourse to excavations,[179] which, in most instances, demonstrated the perfect accuracy of Hwen Thsang.
 
Nearly two hundred years previous to the voyage of Hwen Thsang, another Chinese pilgrim named Fa-hian had undertaken a similar journey. Impelled by a purely religious zeal, he came to India for the sole purpose of visiting the places rendered famous and venerable by the birth, life, doings, and death of Foe, the same personage who is known in these parts under the name Buddha Gaudama. His object was also to make a complete collection of all the religious books acknowledged as genuine in India, and carry them with him to China. The errand of Hwen Thsang had a similar object.
 
Our worthy traveller, according to his account, passed through Southern Thibet, Little Tartary, and visited successively Cabul, Cashmere, Candahar, and the Punjaub. Following a nearly south-eastern direction, he reached Mathura on the Upper Jumna, crossed the Ganges at Kanouj, at the confluence of the Kali with that river, travelled almost in an eastern direction through Oude, and crossed the Gogra near the Fyzabad. Keeping close to the eastern bank of that stream, he struck in a slightly northern direction, passing the Rapti south of Goruckpore, and followed the same course, nearly to the western bank of the Gunduck. From thence he shaped his course in a south-easterly direction, parallel to the course of that river, which he crossed a little higher up the place where it empties into the Ganges. Following then a southern direction, he crossed the Ganges near the place where the city of Patna is now. From thence our pilgrim travelled in a south-easterly direction, crossed successively the Morhar and the Fulgo, examined all the places in the neighbourhood, south and south-west of Behar, which are so celebrated in Buddhistic annals. After having spent three years in India, busy in mastering the Pali language and collecting copies of the religious works, he then embarked on the Ganges. Near its mouth he went on[180] board of a ship bound to Ceylon. After having visited that celebrated island, Fa-hian sailed in the direction of the Malayan Archipelago, called at Java, and safely arrived at his country, after having performed one of the most extraordinary and difficult journeys any man could have undertaken in those ancient times. It was in the beginning of the fifth century that this feat was performed in the space of more than seven years. He spent three years in India, and two at Ceylon.
 
The Chinese original of Fa-Hian has been translated into French by A. Remusat. The English version from the French is accompanied by the annotations of Remusat and those of other celebrated Orientalists. The book of Hwen Thsang has been translated by M. Julien. For the loan of these two works the writer is indebted to the ever-obliging kindness of the worthy and learned Chief Commissioner of British Burma, Col. A. P. Phayre. From these works we have extracted the above and following particulars.
 
1. The name given by northern Buddhists to Buddha is Thakiamuni, which means the religious of the Thakia family. He belonged to the Kshatria, or the warriors’ caste. The name Gaudama, according to the opinion of the late E. Burnouf, is the name of the religious instructor of his family, which members of families of that caste often adopted. This instructor might have been a descendant of the celebrated philosopher Gotama, mentioned in certain writings, but distinct from our Buddha.
 
2. Kapila, or Kapilawot, the birthplace of Buddha, was situated on the left bank of the Gogra, straight north of Benares.
 
It was a heap of ruins when Fa-Hian visited it, and the country almost a desert. Some are of opinion that it was situated near the mountains that separate Nepaul from Goruckpore, on the river Rohini, a mountain stream, feeder of the Rapti. But this assertion has very few supporters, and appears improbable.
 
[181]
 
3. The river Anauma cannot be the Amanat in Behar, south of Patna. It is probably one of the feeders of the Gogra, and to be met with half-way between Kapila and Radzagio, the site of which city, as will be subsequently seen, lies close to modern Behar. The legend bears out this supposition. Buddha travelled thirty youdzanas from Kapila to the river Anauma, thence thirty to Radzagio. The youdzana of those times in Magatha is supposed to have been equal probably to seven miles.
 
4. Oorouwela was one of the mountains famous for the number of the hermits that withdrew thither for the purpose of meditation. It is not far from Gaya Buddha.
 
5. The river Neritzara, in Mongol, Nirandzara, is a considerable stream flowing from the south-west. It unites with the Monah and forms the Fulgo.
 
6. Baranathee is beyond doubt the famous city of Benares. The Burmans call it by name of Baranathee, or rather Varanasi. The town is so named from its situation between the small river Varana and the Asi, a mere brook. The solitude of Migadawon, whither Buddha went to preach the law to the five Rahans that had served him during the six years of mortification which he spent in the forest of Oorouwela, lies in its vicinity. Benares is famous in the Buddhistic annals, because in its neighbourhood the law of the wheel, or rather the super-excellent law of the four sublime truths, was announced for the first time. Migadawon means the deer-forest. It lies three and a half miles from Benares in a northern direction. It is said that, after having travelled nine miles from the Bodi tree, Buddha had to go over a distance of eighteen youdzanas ere he reached Benares, making a total of about 120 miles.
 
7. Radzagio, or Radzagihra, was the capital of Magatha or South Behar. Its situation is well ascertained. Its ruins have been minutely described by several travellers. It was situated on the left bank of the same small river as Behar, but a few miles south of that place. The mountains or peaks surrounding that ancient city are full of[182] caves, tenanted in former ages by Buddhist ascetics. The mountain Gayathitha, where Buddha preached his famous sermon, lies in the neighbourhood. It is perhaps the same as the Gridrakuta, or the Vulture’s Peak.
 
8. The Buddhist annals often mention the country of the middle or Mitzima-desa. It comprised the countries of Mathura, Kosala, Kapila, Wethalee, and Magatha; that is to say, the provinces of Agra, Delhi, Oude, and South Behar.
 
Magatha, south of the Ganges, had for capital at first Radzagio, until Kalathoka, a hundred years after the death of Gaudama, transferred the seat of his empire to Pataliputra, or Palibothra. The celebrated Weloowon monastery was situated in the neighbourhood of Radzagio, and was offered to Buddha by King Pimpathara, the ruler of that country.
 
9. Kosala is the same as the kingdom of Ayodya, now called Oude. Thawattie, or Crawastu, was the capital of a district of that country. It was situated nearly at the same place where at present stands the modern town of Fyzabad. According to the legend, the distance from Radzagio to Thawattie is forty-five youdzanas of about seven miles. Twelve hundred paces from that city was to be met the renowned monastery of Dzetawon, or the grove of the victorious. Many ruins that have been visited and examined leave no doubt regarding the certain position of Thawattie.
 
10. Thing-ka-tha, or Tsam-pa-tha, lies in an eastern direction between Mathura and Kanouj, near the site occupied by the town of Ferruckabad. Captain A. Cunningham has met with the ruins of that place in the village of Samkassa, on the left bank of the Kalinadi, twelve cos from Ferrukabad. According to a popular tradition, it was destroyed in 1183 by the King of Kanouj, at the instigation of the Brahmins, who endeavoured by every means in their power to sweep all the remnants of Buddhism from those parts of the peninsula. It was in that[183] place that Buddha arrived on his return from the seats of Nats, whither he had gone to preach the law to his mother. According to the legend, the distance from Thawattie to Thing-ka-tha is thirty youdzanas in a westerly direction. Fa-Hian says that he saw in one of the temples of that place the ladder Buddha had used when he came down from the seats............