Geography of Early Buddhism c7.s1.22

c7.s1.22

Janapadas, Nigamas, Nagaras, Gāmas, etc.— Apara-Gayā. In the Mahāvastu (A Study of the Mahāvastu, pp. 156-57) we read that the Buddha, desirous of preaching the Dhamma to the Pañcavaggiya bhikkhus who were then in Benares, set out from Uruvilva. From Uruvilva the Buddha came to Gayā, from Gayā to Apara-Gayā where he was invited by Sudarsana, King of Snakes. He then came to Vesālī whence he went to a city named Cundadvīla, where he announced to the Ājivika named Upaka that without a master he had become ‘Buddha’.