Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.372

c6.372

According to the Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hien, the city was thinly populated.¹ Here he saw towers set up at various places. According to Hiuen Tsang, it was about 4,000 li in circuit. The villages were few and desolate, and the monasteries were more than 1,000 in number. There were Deva temples where different sectarians worshipped. After the passing away of the Buddha topes and shrines were built at or near Kapilavastu (Watters, On Yuan Chwang, II, p. 4). This town which was known to the Chinese as Kie-pi-lo-fa-sse-ti, had no supreme ruler. It was rich and fertile and was cultivated according to the regular season. The climate was uniform and the manners of the people soft and obliging (Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World, II, 14). In this city there was the Mote Hall (Santhāgāra) where the administrative and judicial business was carried out (Buddhist India, p. 19). Between this city and that of Koliya the water of the river Rohiṇī was caused to be confined by a single dam (Dhammapada Commentary, Vol. III, p. 254). According to the Lalitavistara (pp. 58, 77, 98, 101, 102, 113, 123) Kapilavastu was a great city, full of gardens, avenues and market-places. There were four city gates and towers all over the city. It was an abode of the learned and a resort of the virtuous. With arched gateways and pinnacles it was surrounded by the beauty of a lofty table-land (Buddhacarita, I, vv. 2, 5). The city had intelligent ministers (Saundaranandakāvya, I). As there was no improper taxation, poverty could not find any place there, where prosperity alone shone resplendently (Buddhacaritakāvya, I, v. 4).