The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India c5.s9.218

c5.s9.218

Kusinagara—The place where Buddha died in 477 B C, according to Prof Max Müller, but according to the Ceylonese chronology and Prof Lassen, he died in 543 B C, (see Goldstücker's Pāṇini, pp 231 233), at the age of eighty in the eighth year of the reign of Ajātaśatru It has been identified by Prof Wilson with the present village of Kasia, thirty seven miles to the east of Gorakhpur and to the north west of Bettia Buddha died in the upavattana of Kusināra in the Śila grove of the Mallians, between the twin Sāla trees in the third watch of the night, resting on his right side with his head to the north (Mahāparinibbāna Sutta in SBE, vol XI, pp 103, 116) Aśoka erected three stūpas on the scene of his death It was anciently called Kusāvatī (Jātaka, Cam Ed, V, 141—Kusa Jātaka) The charcoal ashes of Buddha's funeral pyre were enshrined in a stūpa at Barhi now called Moriyanagara in the Nyagrodha forest, visited by Hiuen Tsiang The ruins of Aniruddha near Kasia in the district of Gorakhpur have been identified with the palaces of the Malla nobles of the Buddhist records The relics (bones) of Buddha were divided by the Brahmin Droṇa into eight parts among the Lichchhavis of Vaiśālī, Sakyas of Kapilavastu, Bulayas of Allakappaka, Koliyas of Rāmagrāma, Brāhmanas of Beṭhadvīpa (perhaps Bethī), Mallas of Pāvā, Mallas of Kusināra (Kusinagara), and Ajātaśatru, king of Pāṭaliputra, who all erected stūpas upon them The Brahmin Droṇa built a stūpa upon the pitcher with which he had measured the relics, and the Mauryas of Pipphalavatī built another on the charcoal from Buddha's funeral pyre (Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, ch 6) Dr Hoey identifies Kasia with the place where Buddha received the *kâshâya* or the mendicant robe after he had left his home (*JASB.*, vol. LXIX, p. 83). Though Mr. Vincent A. Smith doubts the identification of Kusinagara with Kasia, yet the recent exploration by the Archæological Department has set the question at rest. The *stûpa* adjoining the main temple containing an image of the dying Buddha was opened and a copperplate was discovered showing the following words at the end “Copperplate in the Stûpa of Nirvâṇa.”