Geography of Early Buddhism c7.23

c7.23

Benares was a great centre of industry, trade, etc. There existed trade relations between Benares and Sāvatthi (Dh. C., III, p. 429) and between Benares and Taxila (Ibid., I, p. 123). The people of Benares used to go to Taxila. We read in the Susīma Jātaka that a certain youth of Benares went to Taxila, two thousand leagues away from the former, to learn the ‘hatthi-sutta’ (Jāt., II, p. 47). We know from the Bhojājānīya Jātaka (No. 23) that ‘all the kings round coveted the kingdom of Benares.’