Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.642

c6.642

*Sāketa*.—Sāketa was the capital city of northern Kosala. Patañjali mentions it in his *Mahābhāṣya* (3.3.2, p. 246; 1.3.2, p. 608). It is the Sogeda of Ptolemy and Shachi of Fa-hien (Legge, *Travels of Fa-hien*, p. 54). It became a highly important city in the kingdom of Kosala wherefrom one might travel to Kosambi across the Yamunā. It could be reached from Sāvatthi by a chariot-drive with seven relays of the best of steeds (*‘Sattarathavinitāni’*—*Majjhima*, I, 149). It was a town on the borderland of Kosala towards the south-west. It stood out prominently among the six great cities of India (*Dīgha N.*, II, 146). It was the capital in the period immediately preceding the Buddha's time (Carmichael Lectures, 1918, p. 51). It was at this city that the banker Dhanañjaya, the father of Visākhā-migāramātā, lived (Dhammapada Commentary, Vol. I, Pt. 2, pp. 386-7). Sāriputta once stayed at Sāketa (Vinaya, I, p. 289). Jīvaka came here and cured the ailing wife of a banker (Ibid., I, 270ff.). The road from Sāketa to Śrāvastī was frequented by robbers who were dangerous to passers-by. Even the monks were robbed of their belongings and sometimes killed by the robbers. Royal soldiers used to come to the spot where robbery was committed and used to kill those robbers whom they could arrest (Vinaya, I, p. 88). Thirty monks, who were dwellers in the forest, had to stay at Sāketa, being unable to reach Śrāvastī in time, when the Buddha was staying there in the Jetavana of Anāthapiṇḍika (Vinaya, I, p. 253). There was a village named Toraṇavatthu between Sāvatthī and Sāketa (Samyutta, IV, 374ff.). The Jātakas refer to Sāketa as an important city (Vol. III, 217, 272; V, 13; VI, 228). Sāketa is especially said to have belonged to the Guptas.