The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c10.51

c10.51

Buddha, as has been mentioned above, died in the reign of Ajātasatru, in the eighth year of the reign, according to the *Mahāvaṁśa*, which cannot be relied on for details.² Shortly before his death, Kapilavastu, his ancestral home, was captured by Virūdhaka, king of Kosala, who is alleged to have perpetrated a ferocious massacre of the Sākya clan to which Buddha belonged. The story is so thickly encrusted with miraculous legend that the details of the event cannot be ascertained, but the coating of miracle was probably deposited upon a basis of fact, and we may believe that the Sākyas suffered much at the hands of Virūdhaka.³