Geography of Early Buddhism c6.3

c6.3

It has already been said that early Pāli literature is mainly canonical. The huge bulk of texts included in it contains in each of them incidental references to cities and places in connection with the gradual spread of Buddhism mainly within the borders of Majjhimadesa or the Middle Country and the localities bordering it. For such information, the Vinaya Piṭaka is a most important source and it is here perhaps for the first time that we find an accurate description of the four boundaries of the Madhyadeśa as understood by the Buddhists of the time. No less important are the Digha, the Majjhima and the Aṅguttara Nikāyas of the Suttapiṭaka wherefrom can be gleaned a systematic survey of the entire geographical knowledge of the Middle Country, as well as of some other localities of Northern and Southern India. The Jātakas also contain incidental references to places and localities which add to our geographical knowledge of Buddhist India. Such incidental references can also be found in almost each and every treatise, early or late, canonical or non-canonical. But of non-canonical literature which introduces us to important geographical notices, mention should be made of the Milindapañho or the questions of King Milinda, and the Mahāvastu, a Buddhist sanskrit work of great importance. Of later texts, the most important from our point of view are the commentaries of Buddhaghosa and some of his colleagues. Mention must also be made of the two important Ceylonese Chronicles—the Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa as well as the huge commentary literature of Ceylon and Burma.