Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.414

c6.414

Vārāṇasī was known to the Chinese as P'o-lo-ni-sse. It was 4,000 li in circuit and was very densely populated. The climate was soft, the crops abundant, the trees flourishing, and the underwood thick in every place. There were about 30 saṅghārāmas and 100 deva-temples. The people were humane and were earnestly given to study. They were mostly unbelievers and a few paid reverence to the Buddha (Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World, II, 44ff.). Near Benaras there was a locality named Cundaṭṭhila (Cundavila) which finds mention in the Barhut Inscriptions (Barua and Sinha, Barhut Inscriptions, pp. 7, 18).