Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.651

c6.651

The city of Śrāvastī was situated on the bank of the Aciravatī (Vinaya-Mahāvagga, pp. 190-191, 293; Paramatthajotikā, p. 511). The Jetavana and the Pubbārāma were the two well-known Buddhist monastic establishments and influential centres of Buddhism, built in the life-time of the Buddha adjoining and to the south of the city of Śrāvastī. Śrāvastī was also an important and powerful seat of Brahmanism and Vedic learning. It had an important Brahmanical institution under the headship of Jānusoni (Digha, I, 235; Sumaṅgalavilāsinī, II, 399; Majjhima, I, 16). According to the Bodhisattvāvādānakalpalatā (61. 2), Svastika, a Brahmin of Śrāvastī, took to cultivation to earn his livelihood. Among the wealthy nobles of Śrāvastī mention may be made of Prince Jeta who laid out, owned and maintained the famous garden bearing his name (Papañcasūdanī, I, p. 60). There was another famous garden near the city bearing the name of Mallikā, the queen of Prasenajit of Kosala. Sudatta, noted in the tradition of Buddhism as Anāthapiṇḍika, gained an immortal fame as the donor of the Jetavanavihāra, and Visākhā immortalised herself by erecting the Pubbārāmavihāra.