Geography of Early Buddhism c7.56

c7.56

The Mallaraṭṭha or Mallāraṣṭra has been mentioned in the Aṅguttara Nikāya as one of the sixteen Mahājanapadas. The kingdom was divided into two parts which had for their capitals the cities of Kusāvatī or Kusīnārā and Pāvā identical probably with Kasia (on the smaller Gandak and in the east of the Gorakhpur district) and a village named Padaraona (12 miles to the north-east of Kasia) respectively.¹ The Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta states that the Sāla grove of the Mallas where the Buddha lay in his Mahāparinibbāna was situated near the river Hiraṇyavatī identical probably, as Smith indicates, with the Gaṇḍak (Early Hist. of India, p. 167 n.).