Geography of Early Buddhism c7.s1.1

c7.s1.1

The Kuru country mentioned in the Ṛgveda is probably the Uttarakuru of later times which is alluded to in Pāli literature as a mythical region. Its extent is, however, given as 8,000 yojanas (Smv., II, p. 623). References to the southern Kuru country are frequent in Buddhist literature. The Papañcasūdanī says (Vol. I, p. 225) that there was a janapada named Kuru and its kings used to be called Kurus. In the Aṅguttara Nikāya (Vol. I, p. 213; IV, pp. 252, 256, 260) Kuru is mentioned as one of the sixteen mahājanapadas. At Kammāsadhamma, one of the Kuru towns, the Buddha delivered some profound discourses to the Kurus: the Mahānidāna and the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Suttantas of the Dīgha Nikāya (Vol. II). The thera Raṭṭhapāla, whose verses are still preserved in the Therīgāthā, was a Kuru noble and was born in the town of Thullakoṭṭhika in the town of the Kurus (Pss. B., pp. 302-307). He is also mentioned in the Majjhima Nikāya (II, pp. 65 foll.) as holding a religious discussion with King Koravya. From the Dhammapada Commentary (III, pp. 241-47) we learn that Aggidatta, a chaplain of the King Mahākosala of Kosala, after renouncing the world, lived in a place between the eastern dominion of Aṅga-Magadha and the Kuru country. Of smaller towns mention is made in the Pāli texts of Thullakoṭṭhika and Kammāsadhamma.