Tribes in Ancient India c31.129

c31.129

Five hundred carpenters lived in a village in Kāśī.¹ There was in Benares a great carpenter-quarter containing a thousand families. These carpenters avowed publicly that they could make a bed or a chair or a house; but when they took a large advance from the people, they proved themselves to be liars. They were then so much harassed by their customers that they had to leave the town.² A certain carpenter of Benares prepared mechanical wooden birds (airships), by means of which he conquered a tract of land in the Himalayas. His capital was known as Kaṭṭhavāhananagara. He sent valuable presents to the king of Benares who in return sent him the news of the advent of the Buddha Kassapa in Benares.³