Tribes in Ancient India c31.6

c31.6

According to the Jātakas, Bārāṇasī had other names in previous ages, i.e. in previous incarnations of the Buddha: e.g. Surundhana,⁴ Sudassana,⁵ Brahmavaḍḍhana,⁶ Pupphavatī,⁷ Rammanagara⁸ and Molinī.⁹ In the Chinese versions of Buddhist works, the terms Kāśī and Vārāṇasī are generally given in transcription, but the former term is sometimes translated by Ti-miao, meaning ‘reed-sprouts’. Ti-miao may have been intended to translate Kāśī, as supposedly connected with Kāśī,¹⁰ a certain kind of grass. Bārāṇasī is also called Kāśīnagara and Kāśīpura (e.g. *Jātaka*, V, 54; VI, 165; *Dhammapada Comm.*, I, 87).