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THE VATSAS
143
impale him upon a stake'. Stakes of acacia and nimb wood did not pierce him, so concluding that the ascetic was innocent, the king ordered the stake to be drawn out. This was found to be impossible, however, so at Mandavya's suggestion the stake was cut off with the skin. Thenceforward he was called Mandavya with the Peg. The king asked his pardon and settled him in the royal park.1
According to the Buddhist legendary tradition, the Vatsa country was among those considered by the Devaputras in the Tuşita heaven when a suitable birthplace for the Buddha was under discussion. The defects of the Vatsas and their royal family were then pointed out. For instance, it was said that the Vamsas were rude and rough, and their king an 'Ucchedavādin'; and, finally, it was decided that the royal family of Vatsa was unsuited for the honour of the Buddha's birth. However, when the Buddha was about to pass away, Ananda mentioned Kausāmbi of the Vatsas as one of six great cities suitable for the Buddha's parinibbāna.3
Kaušāmbī, the capital of the Vatsas, is identified by Cunningham with Kosām on the Jumna, about 30 miles south-west of Allahabad.4 The Cambridge History, following Cunningham, says that Kaušāmbi seems to have been on the south bank of the Jumna, at a point about 400 miles by road from Ujjain, and about 230 miles upstream from Benares. The Chinese pilgrims, Fā-Hien and Hsüan Tsang, give discrepant accounts of the situation of Kausāmbi. Fā-Hien arrived there from the Deer Park to the north of Benares, after walking north-west for 13 yojanas (about 91 miles), as he says. This would make Kaušāmbī lie to the north or north-west of Prayāga, as St. Martin thinks 6; but Hsüan Tsang, who visited Kaušāmbī twice, arrived there by going from Prayāga ‘south-west through a forest infested by wild elephants and other fierce animals, and after a journey of above 500 li (about 100 miles).'?
The question of the site of Kauśāmbī has been much debated, chiefly because of the impossibility of reconciling Cunningham's identification with the descriptions of the Chinese pilgrims. But such descriptions may either have been incorrect originally or may have been subsequently misinterpreted. For instance, there is nothing in the actual records of Hsuan Tsang to suggest that the
| 1 Jataka (Fausböll), Vol. IV, pp. 28 foll.
2 See the Romantic Legend of Sākya Buddha, p. 28; and Lalitavistara, ed. Lefmann, p. 21.
3 Digha Nikāya, pp. 146, 169. 4 Ancient Geography of India, p. 454. See also Rapson, Ancient India, p. 170. 5 Cambridge History, Vol. I, pp. 187-8. 6 Watters, On Yuan Chwang, Vol. I, pp. 366-7. 7 Ibid., p. 365.
