Historical Geography of Ancient India c8.229

c8.229

Indasāla-guhā.—The Indasāla-guhā cave finds mention in the Barhut Jātaka label No. 6. It is named after an Indasāla tree standing at its door (Barua and Sinha, *Barhut Inscriptions*, p. 61). The village called Ambasanda which exists outside the area of Rājagṛha but within Magadha, indicates the location of this cave on the Vediyaka mountain standing to the north of it. It was in this cave the Buddha delivered the *Sakkapañha-Suttanta* to Indra, the lord of gods (*Dīgha*, II, pp. 263-4, 269), Fa-hien and Hiuen Tsang suggest a name for the cave in Chinese which corresponds to Skt. Indraśailaguhā-mountain (*In-t'o-lo-shi-io-kia-ho-shan*). According to Fa-hien, the cave and the mountain were situated nine yojanas to the south-east of Pāṭaliputra and according to Hiuen Tsang, it was situated 30 li (about five miles) to the east of the town of Kālapināka. Cunningham, however, identifies the mountain with Giriyek six miles from Rājgir (Cunningham, *A.G.I.*, ed. Majumdar, 539ff.; Barua and Sinha, *Barhut Inscriptions*, p. 126; Law, *Geography of Early Buddhism*, p. 42).