India As Described In Early Texts Of Buddhism and Jainism

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

Page 54

46 INDIA AS DESCRIBED IN EARLY TEXTS
At the south gate of Sāvatthi and within a distance of about two miles from it was the famous garden of Prince Jeta, at its east gate lay the site of the Pubbārāma built by Visākhā, and in its neighbourhood stood the Ekasālakatinduka grove of Queen Mallikā.1 The Jaina Bhagavati Sūtra mentions the settlement of Saravaņa as the birth-place of Gosāla.2
The Sundarikā, probably not far from Săpatthi, was a sacred river in Kosala besidos the Sarabhū and Aciravati. The river Sadānīrā (modern Gandaki) formed a boundary in the east between Kosala and Videha.3
Magadha: The kingdom or country roughly corresponding to the modern Patna and Gayā districts of Behar-was broadly divided into two khettas: Gayā and Magadha 4 from a religious, and may be also from a fiscal point of view. In the Jambudīva-pannatti the latter is distinctly called Māgahatitthakhetta. The Ganges formed a natural dividing line between Kāsi in the west and Magadha in the east, as well as between Magadha in the south and Videha
1 Sumangalavilásint, ü, 365. 2 Law, Srävasti, p. 26. 8 Law, Strāvasti in Indian Literature, p. 13.
4 Paramatthajotika, II, p. 301: Gaya n gämo pi tittham pi vuocati; Therīgäthä-affhakathā, p. 225: Magadharatthe Bodhimanda; Lalita. viatara, Mitra's Edition, XVII, 309: Māgadhakānam Gaya; Paramatthajotikā, II, p. 683: Magadhakhette pãeānakacetiye ; Barua, Gaya and Buddhagaya, 1, p. 83f.