Tribes in Ancient India c50.289

c50.289

What actually happened to the Buddhist Saṅgha at Rājagṛha as a consequence of the transfer of the capital to Pāṭaliputra, we cannot precisely say. But we can tell from glimpses of fact here and there that the process of history was one of decay. Hsüan Tsang tells us that ‘two or three li to the north-west of this (the Kalanda Tank to the north of the Veṇuvana monastery) was an Aśoka tope beside which was a stone pillar, above 50 feet high, surmounted by an elephant, and having an inscription recording the circumstances leading to the erection of the tope.⁵ The circumstances that led to the erection of the tope at Rājagṛha by Aśoka are also narrated by the Pāli scholiasts and chroniclers. The Mahāvaṃsa says that the Venerable Indagutta (Indagupta) went from all places around Rājagṛha as a representative to take part in the grand celebration of a Mahāthūpa in Ceylon during the reign of King Duṭṭhagāmaṇi (second century B.C.).⁶ As some of the images recently discovered at Rājagṛha indicate, there was some amount of new vigour in Buddhist activities at the place under the patronage of the Pāla kings, after which the history of Buddhism at Rājagṛha became practically closed for ever.