Geography of Early Buddhism c7.s1.55

c7.s1.55

Yuan Chwang visited Kapilavastu, the towns of Krakucandra and Konāgamana and Lumbinī or La-fa-ni grove, the birth place of Lord Buddha. The Rummindeī pillar inscription of Asoka locates beyond doubt the Lumbinī grove. The inscription on the Nigliva pillar (now situated 38 miles north-west of the Uskabazar station of B.N.W. Ry.) shows that it was erected near the stūpa of Konāgamana; but it is not in situ. The village of Piprāwā (Birdpur Estate, Bastī District)—the findspot of the famous Piprāwā Vase—marks, according to Dr. Fleet, the site of Kapilavastu (J.R.A.S., 1906, p. 180; CAGI., pp. 711-712). Dr. Rhys Davids, however, takes Tilaura Kot to be the old Kapilavastu and Piprāwā to be the new city built after the destruction of the old city by Viḍūḍabha. Mr. P. C. Mukherjee concurs with Dr. Rhys Davids and identifies Kapilavatthu with Tilaura, 2 miles north of Tauliva which is the headquarters of the provincial government of the Tarai, and 3½ miles to the south-west of the Nepalese village of Nigliva, north of Gorakhpur, situated in the Nepalese Tarai. Rummine-dei is only 10 miles to the east of Kapilavatthu, and 2 miles north of Bhagavanpur.