Geography of Early Buddhism c7.s1.71

c7.s1.71

The Koliyas, one of the republican clans of the time of the Buddha, had two settlements, one at Rāmagāma. Rāmagāma and the other at Devadaha. The Sumaṅgalavilāsinī (pp. 260-262) tells us of the origin of the Koliyas. It is stated that a sage named Rāma, an ex-king of Benares who left his kingdom and retired to a forest as he was detested by his wives and relatives, married the eldest of the five daughters of King Okkāka, who had been forsaken by her relatives and forced to live in forest, and built a town in the forest removing a big Kola tree. The city henceforth came to be known as Kolanagara and the descendants of the king came to be known as Koliyas.