Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s7.266

c9.s7.266

The **Malla** territory, ancient *Malla-raṭṭha*, the Malla-rāshṭra of the *Mahābhārata*,³ was split up into two main parts which had for their capitals the cities of Kusāvatī or Kusinārā and Pāvā.⁴ The river Kakutthā, the Cacouthes of the classical writers, identified with the modern Kuku, probably formed the dividing line.⁵ The division of the people is also known to the great epic⁶ which draws a distinction between the Mallas proper and the Dakshiṇa or Southern Mallas. There is no agreement among scholars regarding the exact site of **Kusinārā**. In the *Mahā-parinibbāna Suttanta* it is stated that the *Sāla* Grove of the Mallas, the *Upavattana* (outskirt or suburb)⁷ of Kusinārā, lay near the river Hiraṇyavatī. Smith identifies the stream with the Gaṇḍak and says that Kuśīnagara (Kusinārā) was situated in Nepāl, beyond the first range of hills, at the junction of the Little, or Eastern Rāptī with the Gaṇḍak.⁸ He, however, admits that the discovery in the large *stūpa* behind the Nirvāṇa temple near Kasiā on the Choṭa Gaṇḍak, in the east of the Gorakhpur district, of an inscribed copper-plate bearing the words “[parini]r *vāṇa-chaitye tāmrapaṭṭa iti*,”⁹ supports the old theory, propounded by Wilson and accepted by Cunningham, that the remains near Kasiā represent Kuśī-nagara.