Geography of Early Buddhism c7.5

c7.5

It has already been hinted at that the ancient Magadhan country including Benares and Bodh-gayā was the land par excellence of Buddhism and the Buddha. It was, therefore, quite in the logic of circumstances that Buddhist writers would extend the eastern boundary of the Madhyadeśa (Majjhimadesa) farther towards the east so as to include the Buddhist holy land. The boundaries of the Buddhist Majjhimadesa as given in the Mahāvagga (Vol. V, pp. 12-13) may be described as having extended in the east to the town of Kajangala¹ beyond which was the city of Mahāsāla; in the south-east to the river Salalavatī (Sarāvatī) in the south to the town of Saṭakaṇṇika; in the west to the Brāhmana district of Thūna²; in the north to the Usīradhaja mountain.³ The Divyāvadāna (pp. 21-22) however, extends the eastern boundary of Majjhimadesa still farther to the east so as to include Pundavardhana which in ancient times included Varendra—roughly identical with North Bengal. The other boundaries as given in the Divyāvadāna are identical with those as in the Mahāvagga. The Majjhimadesa was 300 yojanas in length, 250 yojanas in breadth, and 900 yojanas in circuit.⁴ It is interesting to place side by side the extent of the entire Jambudipa of which Majjhimadesa was only a part. The Jambudipa according to the Sumangalavilāsinī (II, p. 623) was 10,000 yojanas in extent, whereas Aparagoyāna was 7,000 yojanas (Dasa-sahassa-yojanappamānam Jambudipam, satta-yojana-sahassappamānam Aparagoyānam).