Geography of Early Buddhism c7.s1.61

c7.s1.61

Videha is identical with ancient Tirabhukti, that is modern Tirhut. According to the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (I, IV, 1) Videha was so named after Māthava the Videgha who colonized it. It was bounded by the Kausikī (Kosī) in the east, the Ganges in the south, the Sadānīrā (the Gandak or the Rāptī) in the west and the Himalayas in the north. According to the Rāmāyaṇa (Ādikāṇḍa, XLIX, 9-16; cf. Śānti Parva of the Mahābhārata, CCCXXVII, 12233-8), Mithilā was the name of the capital as well as of the country itself. Cunningham identifies the capital with Janakapura, a small town within the Nepal border, north of which the Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga districts meet (CAGI., p. 718).