The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t21.36

c6.s3.t21.36

Now this story is completely at variance with the statements of the Chinese pilgrims, both of whom visited Râmagrâma many centuries after Dutthagâmini, when they found the relic stupa intact, but no river. Fa-Hian,† in the beginning of the fifth century, saw a tank beside the stupa, in which a dragon (Nâga) lived, who continually watched the tower. In the middle of the seventh century, Hwen Thsang‡ saw the same stupa and the same tank of clear water inhabited by dragons (Nâgas), who daily transformed themselves into men, and paid their devotions to the stupa.§ Both pilgrims mention the attempt of Asoka to remove these relics to his own capital, which was abandoned on the expostulation of the Nâga king. “If by thy oblations,” said the Nâga, “thou canst excel this, thou mayest destroy the tower, and I shall not prevent thee.” Now according to the Ceylonese chronicler, this is the very same argument that was used by the Nâga king to dissuade the priest Sonuttaro from removing the relics to Ceylon.* I infer, therefore, that the original “tank” of Râmagrâma was adroitly changed into a river by the Ceylonese author, so that the relics which were in charge of the Nâgas of the tank, might be conveyed to the ocean-palace of the Nâga king, from whence they could as readily be transferred to Ceylon as to any other place. The river was thus a necessity in the Ceylonese legend, to convey the relics away from Râmagrâma to the ocean. But the authority of a legend can have no weight against the united testimony of the two independent pilgrims, who many centuries later found the stupa still standing, but saw no river. I therefore dismiss the Ganges as a fabrication of the Ceylonese chroniclers, and accept in its stead the Nâga tank of the Chinese pilgrims. Having thus got rid of the river, I can see no objection to the identification of Deokali with the Râmagrâma of Buddhist history. The town was quite deserted at the time of Fa-Hian’s visit, in the fifth century, who found only a small religious establishment; this was still kept up in the middle of the seventh century, but it must have been very near its dissolution, as there was only a single *srámanera*, or monk, to conduct the affairs of the monastery.