India As Described In Early Texts Of Buddhism and Jainism

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

Page 55

GEOGRAPHY
and Vesāli in the north. The river Campā (modern Chandan) formed a boundary on the east side botween Magadha and Anga. As for the two khettas of Gayā and Magadha, it may be said that Gorathagiri (Asoka’s khalatikapavata) affording a distant view, as it did of Rājagaha, stood just on the borderland of Magadha towards Gayā. The Gayā proper, the holiest place of ancient India, comprised three divisions, all located along the left bank of the Nerañjarā and the Gayā river (i.e. Phalgu): Uruvelā, Nadi (the meeting-place of the Neranjari and the Mahānadi), and Gayà. According to the Mahābhārata, the Gayā division contained twenty-five hills (enumerated in the Vāyu Purāņa), of which the Gayāsīra (modern Brahmayoni hill) was the main. As clearly implied in the Gayāmāhātmya the hills of Gaya formed the head of a very old range of hills with its navel at Yājpur in Orissa and southern extremity at Mahendragiri. The distance by road from Gayā to Uruvelā (modern Bodhagayā) was three gāvutas (six or seven miles) then as now.1 The Yruvelā division on the banks of the Nerañjarā, contained Senānīgāma or Senanigama identified by BiJch with the present village of Urel) and Nala, the native village of Buddhaghosa, the great Pali commentator.
1 'Bodhmandato h Gaya timu, Báránasi attharasa?yöjandni