Tribes in Ancient India c33.83

c33.83

Kauśāmbī, the capital of the Vatsas, is identified by Cunningham with Kosām on the Jumna, about 30 miles south-west of Allahabad.⁴ The Cambridge History, following Cunningham, says that Kauśāmbī seems to have been on the south bank of the Jumna, at a point about 400 miles by road from Ujjain, and about 230 miles upstream from Benares.⁵ The Chinese pilgrims, Fā-Hien and Hsüan Tsang, give discrepant accounts of the situation of Kauśāmbī. Fā-Hien arrived there from the Deer Park to the north of Benares, after walking north-west for 13 yojanas (about 91 miles), as he says. This would make Kauśāmbī lie to the north or north-west of Prayāga, as St. Martin thinks⁶; but Hsüan Tsang, who visited Kauśāmbī twice, arrived there by going from Prayāga ‘south-west through a forest infested by wild elephants and other fierce animals, and after a journey of above 500 li (about 100 miles).’⁷