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The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t17.6

The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t17.6

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English

c6.s3.t17.6

But the name of Udâyana, king of Kosâmbi, was perhaps even more famous amongst the Buddhists. In the ‘Mahawanso,’* which was composed in the fifth century, the venerable Yasa is said to have fled from Vaisâli to Kosâmbi just before the assembly of the second Buddhist Synod. In the ‘Lalita Vistâra,’‡ which was translated into Chinese between 70 and 76 A.D., and which could not, therefore, have been composed later than the beginning of the Christian era, Udâyana Vatsa, son of Satânika, king of Kosâmbi, is said to have been born on the same day as Buddha. In other Ceylonese books Kosâmbi is named as one of the nineteen capital cities of ancient India. Udâyana Vatsa is also known to the Tibetans‡ as the king of Kosâmbi. In the ‘Ratnâvali’ he is called *Vatsa Raja*, or king of the Vatsas, and his capital *Vatsa-pattana*, which is therefore only another name for Kosâmbi. In this famous city also Buddha is said to have spent the sixth and ninth years of his Buddhahood.§ Lastly, Hwen Thsang relates that the famous statue of Buddha, in red sandal-wood, which was made by King Udâyana during the lifetime of the Teacher, still existed under a stone dome in the ancient palace of the kings.||

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