The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c21.48

c21.48

In the Nepāl valley, he replaced the older capital Manju Pātan, by a city named Pātan, Lalita Pātan, or Lalitpur, which still exists, 2½ miles to the south-east of Kāthmandū, the modern capital. Lalita Pātan, which subsequently became the seat of a separate principality, retains the special Buddhist stamp impressed upon it by Asoka. His foundation of the city was undertaken as a memorial of the visit which he paid to Nepāl, in 250 or 249 B. C., when he undertook the tour of the holy places. He was accompanied by his daughter Chārumatī, who adopted a religious life, and remained in Nepāl when her imperial father returned to the plains. She founded a town called Devapatana, in memory of her husband Devapāla Kshatriya, and settled down to the life of a nun at a convent built by her to the north of Pasupatināth, which bears her name to this day. Asoka treated Lalita Pātan as a place of great sanctity, erecting in it five great *stūpas*; one in the centre of the town, and four others outside the walls at the cardinal points. All these monuments still exist, and differ conspicuously from more recent edifices. Some minor buildings are also attributed to Asoka or his daughter.²