Historical Geography of Ancient India c8.330

c8.330

Mithilā.—Mithilā was the capital of Videha (Mahābhārata, Vanaparva, 254; cf. Mahāvastu, III, p. 172; Divyāvadāna, p. 424), which was also called Tirabhukti (modern Tirhut). According to the Rāmāyaṇa (Ādi-kāṇḍa, XLIX, 9–16; cf. Śāntiparva of the Mahābhārata, CCCXXVII, 12233–8), it was the name of the capital as well as of the country itself. It has been identified with the modern Janakapura, a small town within the Nepal border. The districts of Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga meet to the north of it (Law, Geography of Early Buddhism, p. 31; Cunningham, Ancient Geography of India, S. N. Mazumder ed., p. 718; Cunningham, A.S.R., XVI, 34). Beal quotes Vivian De St. Martin who connects the name of Chen-su-na with Janakapura (Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World, II, p. 78 n.). During the reign of Janaka, king of Videha, the royal sage Viśvāmitra took four days to reach Mithilā from Ayodhyā, resting at Viśālā on the way for one night only (Rāmāyaṇa, Vaṅgavāsī ed., 1–3; Ibid., Griffith’s Tr., pp. 90-91). Mithilā, according to Rhys Davids, was situated about 35 miles north-west of Vaiśālī (Buddhist India, p. 26). It was seven leagues and the kingdom of Videha 300 leagues in extent (Jātaka, III, 365; *Ibid.*, IV, p. 316). It was situated at a distance of 60 yojanas from Campā, the capital of Aṅga (*Jātaka*, VI, p. 32). Tirabhukti (modern Tirhut) was bounded by the river Kauśiki (Kośī) in the east, the Ganges in the south, the Sadānīrā (Gaṇḍak or the Rapti) in the west and the Himālayas in the north (*Law, Geography of Early Buddhism*, 30-31). Tirabhukti is derived from *Tira* meaning bank and *bhukti*, limit. Cunningham is right in pointing out that the name seems rather to refer to lands lying along the banks of rivers than to the boundaries of a district and these lands may be identified with the valleys of the Būr Gaṇḍak and the Bāgmatī rivers (*Cunningham and Garrick, Reports of Tours in North and South Bihar* in 1880-81, *A.S.I.*, p. 1-2). Videha was so named after Māthava, the Videgha, who colonized it according to the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* (1. IV. 1). Videha took its name from the early immigrants from Pubbavideha, the eastern sub-continent of Asia, placed to the east of Mount Sineru (*Papañcasūdani*, Sinhalese ed., I, p. 484; *Dhammapada-Aṭṭhakathā*, Sinhalese ed., II, 482). This very region is called Bhadrāśvavarṣa in the great Epic (*Mahābhārata*, Bhīṣmaparva, 6, 12, 13; 7, 13; 6, 31).