India As Described In Early Texts Of Buddhism and Jainism

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

Page 57

GEOGRAPHY
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gropron road between Rājagaba and Uruyelā.1 Other localities of importance near about Rājagaha, a city provided with sixty-four gates, the four of which were main, were Veluvana, the Bamboo-grove of Bimbisāra, Jivaka's Mango-grove, the Royal pleasance at Ambalaţthikā on the high road from Rājagaha to Vesāli, and Pāvārika's Mango-grove at Nälandā (identified with the present village of Burgaon). Ekanālā finds mention as a famous Brahmin village at Dakkhiņagiri. Nālaka was a village in Magadha. The Jaina Bhagavatī Sūtra speaks of a village by the name of Siddhatthagāma. The Jainas lay the scene of Mahāvīra's demise at Pāvāpuri on the Bihar Sarif-Nawadah road. The village of Pāšaligāma stood on the right bank of the Ganges, on the same high road, opposite Koţigāma, a locality in an extremity of the Vajji territory. Pāțaligāma having been fortified, gave rise to the city of Pātaliputta, the second and later capital of Magadha which suffered thrice from the action of water, fire and earthquake. The Dhammapada-Commentary (ii, p. 439f.) places Rājagaha at a distance of five leagues from the Ganges. The country of Màgadha comprised as many as eighty thousand villages.
2,8 Law, op. alt., p. or.
1 Law, op. cit., pp. 18-17. 4 Rookhill, Life of the Buddha, p. 250, 6 Digha, ü, 88.
& Vinaya, i, p. 179.