________________
114
TRIBES IN ANCIENT INDIA
1,000 kahāpanas to a young Brahmin for a spell which enabled him to read people's evil thoughts, so that he could learn whether any of his subjects spoke ill of him. There seem to have been educational institutions at Benares also, some of which were even older than those of Taxila (Khuddakapātha Comm., 198). We find for instance that Sankha, a Brahmin of Taxila, sent his son Susīma to Benares to study.1
A knowledge of spells formed an important part of a young man's education in the days when Kāśī was an independent kingdom; and it is natural that we should read of numerous superstitions which were current in Benares. We read in the Jātakas of the skill of the Brahmins of Benares in Lakkhanamantam', or charms for discovering the auspicious signs of various creatures.2 In Benares there was a Brahmin who professed to be able to tell whether the swords (of warriors) were lucky or not. There was a superstitious belief current in Kāśī, as in other countries, that it was an evil omen if the wind touching the body of a candāla (outcaste) touched that of a person of another caste.4 Slaughter of deer, swine and other animals for offerings to goblins was in vogue in Benares.5
Besides those already referred to, names of places mentioned in literature as belonging to Kāśi are Vāsabhagāma, Macchikāsaņda, Kīțāgiri and Dhanapālagāma. The place which was most intimately associated with the several visits that the Buddha paid to Benares was Isipatana Migadāva, a famous Deer Park near the city. It was eighteen leagues from Uruyelā, and it was there that the Buddha preached his first sermon after his enlightenment, to his friends the Pañcavaggiya monks.? There also the Buddha spent his first rainy season; and he mentioned Isipatana as one of the four places of pilgrimage which his devout followers should visit.8 Isipatana was so called because sages, on their way through the air (from the Himalayas) alight here or start from here on their aerial flight'.' Several other incidents connected with the Buddha, besides the preaching of his first sermon, are mentioned in the texts as having taken place in Isipatana.10
1 Dhammapada Comm., III, 445.
2 Jātaka, IV, p. 335. 3 Ibid., I, p. 455. 4 Ibid., III, p. 233.
5 Ibid., IV, p. 115. 6 B. C. Law, India as described in early texts of Buddhism and Jainism, p. 42.
7 Dīgha Nikāya, III, p. 141, Majjhima Nikāya, I, pp. 170ff.; cf. Samyutta Nikāya, V, pp. 420ff.; Kathāvatthu, pp. 97, 559. 18 See Buddhavamsa Comm., p. 3; Dīgha Nikāya, II, p. 141.
9 Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names, s.v. Isipatana.
10 E.g. Vinaya Pitaka (ed. Oldenberg), I, p. 15f.; Dīpavamsa, pp. 119-20; Therigātha Comm., p. 220; Anguttara Nikāya, I, pp. 110ff., 279-80; III, pp. 392ff., 399ff.; Samyutta Nikāya, I, pp. 105-6; V, pp. 406-8.
8B
