The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t23: 20. Kusinagara.
The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t23
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20. Kusinagara.
c6.s3.t23.1
Fa-Hian places *Kusinagara* at 12 yojanas, or 84 miles, to the eastward of the Charcoal Stupa, a distance which is quite impossible when compared with its other recorded distances from Vaisâli and Banâras.[*] Unfortunately, Hwen Thsang, contrary to his usual custom, has omitted to note the distance, and simply states that he travelled in a north-east direction for a long time through a vast forest, full of wild bulls and wild elephants, and infested with brigands. A portion of this forest still exists to the north and east of *Sahankat*, and wild elephants still abound in the Tarai forests to the north of Gorakhpur. Wilson first proposed *Kasia* as the site of Kusinagara, and the suggestion has since been generally adopted. The village is situated exactly 35 miles to the east of Gorakhpur, at the crossing of two great thoroughfares.[†]
c6.s3.t23.2
[*] Beal's ‘Fah-Hian,’ xxiv. 93. [†] See Map No. XI. for its position.
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is 28 miles to the north-east of *Sahankat* in a direct line measured on the map, or about 35 miles by road. The distance is therefore only 5 *yojanas*, instead of 12, as noted by Fa-Hian. It cannot be placed further to the north-east without increasing its distance from Banâras, and lessening its distance from Vaisâli. Now the former is limited by Hwen Thsang to 700 *li*, or 117 miles, and the latter is fixed by Fa-Hian himself at 25 *yojanas*, or 175 miles; and as both estimates agree very closely with the actual position of *Kasia*, I am satisfied that Fa-Hian's 12 *yojanas* must be a mistake. Anrudhwa, near Kasia, is exactly 111 miles to the north-north-east of Banâras, measured in a direct line on the map, and cannot, therefore, be less than 120 miles by road. The distance between Kasia and Vaisâli, by the route which I marched, is just 140 miles; but this was along the new straight lines which have been laid out by the British authorities. By the old winding native tracks the distance would have been much greater, or certainly not less than 160 miles.
c6.s3.t23.4
At the time of Hwen Thsang's visit the walls of *Kusinagara* were in ruins, and the place was almost deserted; but the brick foundations of the old capital occupied a circuit of about 12 *li*, or 2 miles. The existing ruins between Anrudhwa and Kasia are scattered over a much larger space; but some of these were certainly outside the city, and it is now quite impossible to ascertain its exact limits. It most probably occupied the site of the mound of ruins to the north-east of the village of Anrudhwa. The spot where Buddha obtained *Nirvâna* would then correspond with the site of the stupa and ruins now called *Mátha-kuär-ka-kot*, or the "fort of the Dead Prince," and the spot where his body was burned would correspond with the site of the great stupa now called *Devisthán*. The former lies to the north-west of Anrudhwa, and to the west of the old channel of the Chota Gandak, or *Hiranyavati* river, which is still occasionally filled after heavy rain. The latter lies to the north-east of Anrudhwa, and to the east of the old channel of the Hirana, or Chota Gandak.
c6.s3.t23.5
The only name now associated with the ruins near Kasia is that of *Máthá Kuär*, or the "Dead Prince." Mr. Liston gives the name as *Máta*, but a Brahman of the neighbouring village of Bishanpur, who wrote the name for me, spelt it as I have given it, *Máthá*. As this spelling points to the derivation of the word from *Matha*, or Mâtha, "to kill," I have translated *Máthá Kuär* as the "Dead Prince," which I refer to Buddha himself after his death, or, in the language of the Buddhists, after his obtainment of *Nirvâna*. Hwen Thsang, when speaking of *Sákya's* assumption of the mendicant's dress, calls him *Kumára Rája*, or the "Royal Prince;" but although this title was never, I believe, applied to him by the learned after his assumption of Buddhahood, it does not seem at all improbable that it may have remained in common use amongst the people. We know from Hwen Thsang that on the spot where Buddha died there was a brick *vihár*, or temple monastery, in which was enshrined a recumbent statue of Buddha on his death-bed, with his head towards the north. Now this statue would naturally have been the principal object of veneration at Kusinagara, and although amongst the learned it might have been called the "statue of the *Nirvâna*,"
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yet I can readily believe that its more popular name amongst all classes would have been the "statue of the Dead Prince." I am therefore of opinion that the name of *Máthá Kuär*, which still clings to the ruins of Kasia, has a direct reference to the death of Buddha, which, according to his followers, took place at Kusinagara, on the full moon of the Vaisâkh, 543 B.C. The continuance of this name down to the present day is a strong argument in favour of the identification of Kasia as the "death-place" of Buddha.