Historical Geography of Ancient India c8.563

c8.563

Yaṣṭivana (Stick or staff wood).—Grierson has identified it with Jethian, about two miles north of Tapovana near Supa-tīrtha in the district of Gayā (*Notes on the District of Gayā*, p. 49). It was situated some 12 miles from Rājagṛha. It was a palm grove according to Buddhaghosa (*Samantapāsādikā*, Sinhalese ed., p. 158). It was the name of the royal park of Bimbisāra where the Buddha arrived from Gayāsīsa and halted with the Jaṭila converts on his way to the city of Rājagṛha (*Vinaya-Mahāvagga*, I, p. 35; Fausböll, *Jātaka*, I, 83). This palm grove which was situated in the outskirts of the city of Rājagṛha was considered far away as compared with Veṇuvana (*Jātaka*, I, 85). It was famous in the Buddha’s time for a Banyan shrine called Supatiṭṭha Cetiya (*Samantapāsādikā*, Sinhalese ed., p. 158). The site undoubtedly lay to the west of Rājagṛha. The *Mahāvastu* locates it in the interior of a hill (antagirismin—III, 441). Hiuen Tsang describes Yaṣṭivana as a dense forest of bamboos which covered a mountain, and points out that above 10 li (nearly two miles) to the south-west of it there were two hot springs (Watters, *On Yuan Chwang*, II, 146). For further details, vide B. C. Law, *Rājagṛha in Ancient Literature*, *M.A.S.I.*, No. 58, pp. 16–18, 25, 39, 40.