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[Antakrid Dasha (3) Champa]
Champa was the capital of the Anga country. Cunningham wrote - There is a stone ghat just 24 miles from Bhagalpur. This is where Champa should be located. There is a large village to the west of it, called Champanagar, and a small village called Champapur. It is possible that these two are indicative of the true location of the ancient capital Champa.
Fa-Hien considered Champa to be located 18 yojanas east of Pataliputra on the south bank of the Ganga.
From the perspective of the Mahabharata, the ancient name of Champa was 'Malini'. Maharaja Champ renamed it Champa.
Champa is also one of the ten capitals mentioned in the Stananga and one of the six great cities described in the Dirghanikaya. It is described in detail in the Aupapatik Sutra. Acharya Shayambhav composed the Dasha Vaikalik Sutra here.
After the death of Emperor Shrenik, Kunik (Ajatashatru) did not like to stay in Rajgriha and settled in Champanagar after seeing the beautiful gardens of Champa. According to Ganin Kalyanvijayji, Champa was about one hundred kos east (slightly south) of Patna. Nowadays it is called Champanala. This place is three miles west of Bhagalpur.
To the north-east of Champa was a beautiful chaitya called Purnabhadra, where Bhagwan Mahavira stayed.
Champa was a major center of trade in that era, where merchants from far and wide came to buy goods, and merchants from Champa also went to Mithila, Ahikshetra, and Pihuṇḍ (a region of Chikakoṭ and Kalingapattam) for trade. There was a distance of sixty yojanas between Champa and Mithila.
2.
1. The Ancient Geography of India, pp. 546-547
Travels of Fa-Hien, p. 65. Mahabharata 12/5/134 Stananga 10/717 Aupapatik, Champa description
Jain Agam Literature in Indian Society, p. 464 7. Vividh Tirthakalp, p. 65 8. Shraman Bhagwan Mahavira, p. 369 9. (a) Jnatadharmakatha 8, p. 97, 9, p. 121-15 p. 157
(b) Uttaradhyayanasutra 21/2