Geography of Early Buddhism c7.s1.60

c7.s1.60

It is stated in one of the Jātakas (Cowell’s Jāt., III, p. 222) that the city of Mithilā, the capital of the Videhas, was seven leagues and the kingdom of Videha, three hundred leagues in extent. In the Mahājanaka Jātaka (Cowell’s Jātaka, IV, p. 204) the distance between Mithilā and Campā is given as sixty leagues. In one of the Jātakas (Cowell’s Jātaka, III, p. 222) we read that the kingdom of Videha had 15,000 villages, 16,000 storehouses filled, and 16,000 dancing girls. It is clear from Dhammapāla’s Paramatthadīpanī on the Theragāthā (pp. 277-278) that at the time of the Buddha, Videha was a centre of trade. We are told of people coming from Sāvatthi to Videha to sell their wares. It is also stated that the route passed through a desert.