India As Described In Early Texts Of Buddhism and Jainism

Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Bimlacharan Law

Page 46

38 INDIA AS DESCRIBED IN EARLY TEXTS
caņņam cha). The Aitarcya Brāhmaṇa (vii, 14.3) places it, together with Usinara, Kuru and Pañcāla in the Dhruvamadhyamā dik (i.e. Madhyadesa). The Anguttara Nikāya describes it as a land which was very rich and prosperous, a while the Arthasāstra testifies to the high quality of its cotton fabrics.d Kaušāmbi which was all along its capital is rightly identified by Cunningham with the present village of Kosam on the right bank of the Yamunā. Even apart from retaining the name of Kosambi, Kosam is situated on a bank of the Yamunā as it should be according to Pali tradition. The present distance by road of about 100 miles from Benares to Kosam is the distance of 13 yojanas suggested by F'a Hien.4 According to Hinen Tsang, a way from Prayāga (Allahabad) to Kausāmbī lay through a jungle and bare plains covering seven days' journey on foot. Kosam is about 30 miles from Allahabad across the fields and 137 miles by road above the Yamunā. At a distance of about 27 miles north-east of Kosam is the village of Pabhosā where two caves were dedicated to the Kassapiyas by a king of Ahicchatra.
1 Lalitavistara, ed. Lefmann, p. 21. 2 Anguitdra, iv, pp. 262, 256, 260; Manorathapurani, i, p. 806f.; Spence Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, p. 501.
& Shamasástri's Tr., p. 94. 4 Watters, op. cit., i, p. 387. 5 Watters, op. oit., i, p. 366.