Tribes In Ancient India

SR No.: 007311
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
Publication Year: 1943
Total Pages: 449
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 132 MB

Page 120

CHAPTER XXVII
THE KĀSIS
Kāśi was the ancient name of the kingdom of which the chief city was Bārāṇasī, the modern Benares, which is situated 80 miles below Allahabad on the north bank of the Ganges, at the junction between that river and the river Baraņā.1 From the joint name of the two streams which bound the city to the north and the souththe Baran, and the Asi, -the Brāhmanas derive Varāṇasī or Bārānasi.2 The Barāņa or Varanā is a considerable rivulet which rises to the north of Allahabad and has a course of about 100 miles; while the Asi is a mere brook. The former is probably identical with the river Varaṇāvatī, the water of which is said in the Atharvaveda (IV, 7, 1) to have had the property of removing poison. We agree with Macdonell and Keith that, though Kāśi is a late word, it is quite possible that the town is older, as the river Varaṇāvati may be connected with the later Bārāṇasī.3
According to the Jātakas, Bārāṇasī had other names in previous ages, i.e. in previous incarnations of the Buddha: e.g. Surundhana, 4 Sudassana,5 Brahmavaddhana,« Pupphavati,? Rammanagara 8 and Molinī.9 In the Chinese versions of Buddhist works, the terms Kāśi and Vārāṇasī are generally given in transcription, but the former term is sometimes translated by Ti-miao, meaning 'reed-sprouts'. Ti-miao may have been intended to translate Kāśī, as supposedly connected with Kāśi, 10 a certain kind of grass. Bārāṇasī is also called Kāšīnagara and Kāśīpura (e.g. Jātaka, V, 54; VI, 165; Dhammapada Comm., I, 87).
The city proper, as Rhys Davids says, included the land between the Baraņā and the Asi. Its extent including the suburbs, is often stated to have been, at the time when it was the capital of an independent kingdom (that is some time before the rise of Buddhism) 12 leagues or about 85 miles.' 11 In the Jātakas we find the extent
1 Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, p. 34. 2 Cunningham, Ancient Geography of India (S. N. Majumdar), p. 500. 3 Vedic Index, Vol. I, p. 154.
4 Jataka (Fausbj11), IV, p. I04. 5 Ibid., IV, p. 119; V, p. 177.
6 Ibid., IV, p. 119; V, p. 312. 7 Ibid., VI, p. 131.
8 Ibid., IV, pp. 119, 26, etc. 9 Ibid., IV, p. 15. 10 Watters, On Yuan Chwang, Vol. II, pp. 58-9. 11 Buddhist India, p. 34.