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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
AJITASENA-VYAKARANAM
79
Ceylon. He gave the new name Tambapanni-dipa to the place which had hitherto been known as Laikādipa. The people who accompanied him were called Sihalas as they were connected with the king Sihabāhu who received the appellation of Sihala for killing the lion." . This story clearly shows that Sihabāhu, father of Vijaya, had nothing to do with Ceylon. His capital was called Sihapura and the people of his realm the Sihalas. The Chinese words Chih-shihtzu may well, therefore, refer to this Sihapura. Dr. P. C. Bagchi suggests that Chih-shib-tzu should literally mean "one who holds the lion” from chih meaning "to hold," and shih the “lion,” i.e., in Sanskrit it should be Simhadhara. It will be seen in the Mahavamsa (vii, 42) that Sihala is also derived exactly in the same way, viz., because of Sihabāhu catching the lion, he was called the Sihalo (Sibabāhunarindo so sīham ādinnavā ti Sihalo). Mr. Watters and Profs. Lévi and Chavannes, I think, would not object if Chih-shihtzu be restored as Sīhala and identified with a place in Magadha, I mean, Sihapura of the Mahāvamsa tradition. In the Mahāvastu, Simhapura is in one place located in Kalinga and elsewhere it is treated as a capital as prosperous as Hastināpura and not very far from it. A previous Sākyamuni Buddha is said to have entered the town of Simhapura for alms and thereby had converted many. In the Cetiya Jataka (No. 422) Sihapura, Hatthipura etc. were said to be cities founded by sons of the king of Ceti. All these evidences tend to show that there were more than one Sihapura. The Chinese words Chib-shih-tzu, the dwelling place of Nandimitra, very likely referred to Sihala or Sihapura near Magadha.
Nandimitra's dread for the city of Ajitasena and unwillingness to go there is quite interesting. It also points to a border country
1 Mahāvastu, II, p. 95; III, pp. 238, 432.
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