Geography of Early Buddhism c7.s1.8

c7.s1.8

In the Aṅguttara Nikāya, the Sūrasena country is mentioned as one of the sixteen Mahājanapadas. In one of the Jātakas (Cowell’s Jāt., Vol. VI, p. 137) we are told that the Sūrasenas along with the Pañcālas, Matsyas and Maddas witnessed a dice-play between Dhanañjaya Korabba and Punnaka Yakkha. The country had its capital at Madhurā or Mathurā, which like Kauśāmbi stood on the river Yamunā. The ancient Greek writers refer to the Sūrasena country¹ as Sourasenoi and its capital as Methora. From Saṅkissa, the place of the Buddha’s descent from heaven, to Mathurā it was a distance of 4 yojanas (Kaccāyana’s Pāli Grammar, S. C. Vidyābhūṣaṇ’s Ed., Book III, Chap. I, p. 157).