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220 INDIA. AS DESCRIBED IN EARLY TEXTS Rajagaha with Patitthāna. Thus the hermits and vanacarakas co-operated in exploring the forest regions and gradually bringing into existence high roads and trade-routes.
The corporate or congregational life became manifest among the hermits when a large
number of them came to live in one and the same , hermitage, e.g., in the big assama or hermitage
of Sarabhanga in the Kavittha forest on the Godhăvari. In the Buddha's time, there were three settlements or colonies of the Jațilas under three Kassapa brothers in the three divisions of the Gayākhetta, The Pali legend concerning Uruvela seeks to bring out the fact that when in ancient times the hermits came to the place to atone for their sins, there was no corporate life among them. Even among the Jaţilas forming three distinct groups, the tie in each group was rather domestic than congregational. Their leaders, the three Kassapa brothers, were born in a Brahmtn family of Magadha. They were great personalities; all the inhabitants of Anga and Magadha highly rovered them. They were fire-worshippers by their cult, the believers in the great sanotity of the waters of the Gayā river. The people from all, parts of India came on pilgrimage to
1 Vinaya, i, p. 31f. * Barua, Gdya and Buddhagayā, Vol. I, p. 99 | Udāna, p. 6.
