The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India c5.s12.16

c5.s12.16

Tâmasavana—It has been identified by Cunningham with Sultanpur in the Panjab. Sultanpur is the capital of Kulu, situated at the confluence of the Bias and the Serbari; it is also called Raghunâthpur from a temple dedicated to Raghunâtha (*JASB.*, vol. XVII, pp. 206, 207; vol. XVIII, p. 391). According to General Cunningham, the whole of the western Doab-i-Jalandharapîṭha was covered with a thick jungle, from which the monastery took its name of Tâmasavana (*JASB.*, XVII, p. 479). It was at the Tâmasavana convent that the fourth Buddhist synod was convened by Kanishka under the presidency of Vasumitra (*Beal's Introduction to Fa Hian*). According to Hiuen Tsiang and other authorities, the fourth council was convened at Kundalavana monastery in Kashmir, near the capital of that country (*Smith's Early Hist. of India*, 3rd ed., p. 268). Vasumitra was one of the Buddhist patriarchs (for the lives of the 28 Buddhist patriarchs from Mahâ-Kâśyapa to Bodhidharma, see Edkins' Chinese Buddhism, ch. V, and Index, p. 435): their names are Mahâ-Kâśyapa, Ânanda, Saṅgnavasu, Upagupta, Drikaṭa, Michaka, Vasumitra, Buddhanandi, Buddhamitra, Pârśva, Punayadja, Aśvaghosha, Kapimara, Nâgârjuna, Kamadeva, Râhulata, Saṅghanandi, Saṅkayaseta, Kumârada, Jayata, Vasubandhu, Manura (Manoratha), Baklena, Singhla-putra, Basiasita Putnomita, Pradjñâtara and Bodhidharma. For the *Theraparamparâ* from Upāli, see Dīpavaṃsa in JASB, 1838, p 928. The date of this convention (78 A D) at Tāmasavana is said to have given rise to the Śaka era, though Kanishka belonged to the Kushan tribe of the Yuetis or Yuechis (see Śākadvīpa). According to some authorities the Śaka era was founded by Vonones (see Pañchanada). Aśvaghosha wrote his Buddhacharita kāvya in the court of Kanishka. Nāgārjuna and his disciples Āryadeva, Pārśva Charaka and Chandrakīrti were the contemporaries of Kanishka (see General Introduction to the Records of the Buddhist Religion by Takakusu, p lix).