Tribes in Ancient India c31.142

c31.142

Enthusiastic young men of Benares used to go to Taxila, for their education.¹⁰ We read in the Dhammapada Commentary (I, 251ff.) how a certain king of Benares paid 1,000 kahāpaṇas to a young Brahmin for teaching him a mantra (spell) which afterwards proved the means of saving his life, when his barber and senāpati (general) plotted to kill him; and how another king of Benares paid 1,000 *kahāpaṇas* to a young Brahmin for a spell which enabled him to read people's evil thoughts, so that he could learn whether any of his subjects spoke ill of him. There seem to have been educational institutions at Benares also, some of which were even older than those of Taxila (*Khuddakapāṭha Comm.*, 198). We find for instance that Saṅkha, a Brahmin of Taxila, sent his son Susīma to Benares to study.¹