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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.t31: 26. Magadha.

The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s3.t31

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26. Magadha.

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From Nepâl, Hwen Thsang returned to Vaisâli, and then proceeding to the south, crossed the Ganges and entered the capital of Magadha. He notes that the city was originally called Kusumapura, that it had been deserted for a long time, and was then in ruins. It was 70 *li*, or 11¾ miles, in circuit, exclusive of the new town of *Pátaliputra-pura*. This name the Greeks slightly altered to Palibothra on the authority of Megasthenes, whose account is preserved by Arrian.*

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"The capital city of India is Palibothra, in the confines of the Prasii, near the confluence of the two great rivers Erannoboas and Ganges. Erannoboas is reckoned the third river throughout all India, and is inferior to none but the Indus and the Ganges, into the last of which it discharges its waters. Megasthenes assures us that the length of this city is 80 stadia, the breadth 15; that it is surrounded with a ditch, which takes up 6 acres of ground and is 30 cubits deep; that the walls are adorned with 570 towers and 64 gates."

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According to this account the capital of Magadha in the time of Seleukos Nikator was 220 stadia, or 25¼ miles, in circuit. This is about the size of the modern city of Patna, which when surveyed by Buchanan was 9 miles in length by 2¼ miles in breadth,† or 22½ miles, in circumference. In the the Lacedaemonians, who had been waiting for the signal, now attacked the city. The Plataeans, seeing the enemy already inside and their own men falling, and knowing nothing of the plot, were seized with panic and, thinking that the Thebans were far more numerous than they really were, surrendered at discretion. But when they discovered that the Thebans were few, they took heart and, resolving to attack them, closed the gates and fell upon them.

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∗ 'Indica,' x. Strabo, xv. 1. 36, gives exactly the same account.

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† Gazetteer in *v.* Patna; he gives the area as 20 square miles.

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MAP OF GAYA AND BIHÂR A. D. 650. shewing HWEN THSANG'S Route 8 Miles to 1 Inch

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The Thebans, finding themselves in a trap, began to defend themselves. Twice or thrice they repelled the attacks of the Plataeans, but when the women and slaves began to shout and throw tiles and stones from the houses, and a heavy rain began to fall, the Thebans, confused and blinded, broke and fled through the city. Most of them, not knowing the way in the darkness and rain, fell into the drains or were killed by the Plataeans, who knew the streets. The gate through which they had entered had been shut by a Plataean who had found a javelin-head and used it as a bolt, so that there was no way out. Pursued through the city, some climbed the wall and jumped down, most of them perishing; others reached the gate and, finding it shut, were cut down by the women and slaves. A small party, seeing a large building with an open door, rushed in, thinking it was a gate, and were captured.

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Meanwhile, the main body of the Thebans, who were to have arrived at daybreak to support the first party, had been delayed by the rain and the swollen river Asopus. When they heard of the disaster, they hurried to the city, intending to seize any Plataeans who might be outside the walls. The Plataeans, suspecting their intention, sent a herald to them, warning them not to harm the prisoners they had taken, and threatening to kill them if they did not withdraw from their territory. The Thebans, upon this, retired.

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The Plataeans, having thus cleared the city, collected their dead and the prisoners. The prisoners, numbering about one hundred and eighty, were executed the next day, despite a message from the Thebans claiming that they had surrendered on terms. The Plataeans denied this, asserting that they had promised to spare them only if they did not commit further acts of violence.

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Thus ended the attempt of the Thebans upon Plataea, an event which was the immediate cause of the war between Athens and the Peloponnesians. The Plataeans, having secured their city, sent a messenger to Athens with the news, and the Athenians, fearing for the safety of the Plataeans, sent a garrison to their aid and removed the women and children to Athens.

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seventh century, therefore, we may readily admit that the old city of Kusumapura may have been about half this size, or 11 miles in circuit, as stated by Hwen Thsang.

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Diodorus* attributes the foundation of the city to Herakles, by whom he may perhaps mean Bala-Râma, the brother of Krishna, but this early origin is not countenanced by the native authorities. According to the Vâyu Purâna† the city of Kusumapura or Pâtaliputra was founded by Raja Udayâswa, the grandson of Ajatasatru, who was the well-known contemporary of Buddha; but the ‘Mahawanso’ makes Udaya the son of Ajatasatru. According to the Buddhist accounts,‡ when Buddha crossed the Ganges, on his last journey from Râjagriha to Vaisâli, the two ministers of Ajatasatru, king of Magadha, were engaged in building a fort at the village of Patali as a check upon the Wajjians, or people of Vriji. Buddha then predicted that it would become a great city. From these concurring authorities I conclude that the building of the city of Pâtaliputra was actually begun in the reign of Ajatasatru, but was not finished until the reign of his son, or grandson, Udaya, about B.C. 450.

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The position of the city at the junction of the Ganges and Erannoboas was formerly supposed to refer to the confluence of the Gandak or Hiranyavati, which joins the Ganges immediately opposite Patna. But it has been conclusively shown by Mr. Ravenshaw§ that the Son river formerly joined the Ganges just above the city of Patna. As the Sona, or "golden" river, is also called the Hiranya-báha, or the golden, on account of its broad yellow sands, its identification with the Erannoboas is complete both as to name and position.

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∗ Hist. Univers., ii. 24. † Wilson’s ‘Vishnu Purana,’ p. 467, note 45. ‡ Turnour, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vii. 998.

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Strabo and Pliny agree with Arrian in calling the people of Palibothra by the name of Prasii, which modern writers have unanimously referred to the Sanskrit práchya, or "eastern." But it seems to me that Prasii is only the Greek form of Palásiya or Parásiya, a "man of Palása or Parása," which is an actual and well-known name of Magadha, of which Palibothra was the capital. It obtained this name from the Palása, or Butea frondosa, which still grows as luxuriantly in the province as in the time of Hwen Thsang.* The common form of the name is Parás, or when quickly pronounced Prás, which I take to be the true original of the Greek Prasii. This derivation is supported by the spelling of the name given by Curtius,† who calls the people Pharrasii, which is an almost exact transcript of the Indian name Parásiya. The Praxiakos of Ælian is only the derivative form Palásaka.

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† 'Vita Alexandri,' ix. 2.

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According to Hwen Thsang's estimate the province of Magadha was about 5000 li, or 833 miles, in circuit.‡ It was bounded by the Ganges on the north, by the district of Banâras on the west, by Hiranya Parvata, or Mongir, on the east, and by Kiraṇa Suvarna, or Singbhûm on the south. It must, therefore, have extended to the Karmnâsa river on the west, and to the sources of the Damûda river on the south. The circuit of these limits is 700 miles measured direct on the map, or about 800 miles by road-distance.

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∗ Julien's 'Hiouen Thsang,' i. 151: 'çà et là de beaux kie-ni, ou kanaka (Butea frondosa), laissaient pendre leurs fleurs d'un rouge éblouissant.'

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‡ Julien's 'Hiouen Thsang,' ii. 409.

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As Magadha was the scene of Buddha’s early career as a religious reformer, it possesses a greater number of holy places connected with Buddhism than any other province of India. The chief places are *Buddha-Gaya*, *Kukkutapada*, *Rájagriha*, *Kuságárapura*, *Nálanda*, *Indrasilaguha*, and the Kapotika monastery, all of which will be described separately, whilst the smaller places will be noticed in the account of Hwen Thsang’s route to the more important localities.

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