India As Described In Early Texts Of Buddhism and Jainism

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

Page 48

40 INDIA AS DESCRIBED IN EARLY TEXTS
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name of its capital is generally spelt as Sumsumăragiri. But Buddhaghosa expressly says that the city was called Sumsumāragira on account of the fact that while it was being founded, the shriek of a sumsumāra (crocodile) was heard. If the spelling giri be correct, the city must have been built either round or in the vicinity of the Sumsumara hill. The location of Bhagga is not as yet settled, though ⚫ Dr. Malalasekera places it between Vesali and Sāvatthi 2 without citing any evidence for it. In the Mahabharata, too, the Bharga State is associated with Vatsa. In tho Apadāna, Bhagga is mentioned along with Karusa (Karūṣa),4 which latter is referred in the Märkandeya Purana to a neighbourhood of the Vindhya range.5
Cetiraṭṭha: The country of the Cetis or Cedis lay near the Yamuna, contiguous to that of the Kurus. It may approximately be identified with the modern Bundelkhand and adjoining region. In the Cetiya Jātaka Sotthivati, probably identical with the Sukti or Šuktimati of
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1 Papañcasidant, i, Sinhalese ed., p. 292
2 Malalasekera, op. cit., ii, p. 345.
P
a Mahabharata, ii, 30.10-11; Raychaudhuri, op. cit., p. 159.
Also Harivaméa, 29.73.
* Apadāna, ii, p. 359.
6 Märkandeya Purāṇa, Chap. 57.
6 Jataka, (Fausböll), iii, pp. 454-461.
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