Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s2.t9.2

v1.c7.s2.t9.2

Modern archaeological excavations trace the history of Rajgriha to 1,000 BCE. However, this ancient city gradually lost its pre-eminence due to various reasons including the shift of capital to Patliputra. Much information of its physical setting is available through the travel records of Chinese traveller-monks – Fa Xian, Xuanzang and Yijing which note the existence of an old and a new city and describe that the city lies within a valley and is surrounded by low-lying hills. It is demarcated by an earthen embankment (the Inner Fortification) which associated with the Outer Fortification, a complex of cyclopean walls that runs (with large breaks) along. New Rajgir is defined by the larger stone embankment constructed outside the northern entrance of the valley to the plain. These are dated to the period of Bimbisara and Ajatshatru in the 6th-5th centuries BCE. When the Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian visited Rajgriha in the early 5th century CE, he found the city largely shorn of its earlier splendour. He however, noticed many monasteries and *stupas*. This included one constructed by Ajatshatru over his share of Buddha's relics which were divided into eight portions and distributed among claimant neighbouring kingdoms; as well as a large *stupa* with the elephant-capital on top of the pillar, later built there by Emperor Asoka. During his visit to the city in the middle of 7th century CE, Xuanzang too notes the decline of the city but located various sites connected with historical Buddha. The city, according to literary evidences, survived until 12th century CE. Lost for seven centuries with even its exact location erased from historical memory, it was later rediscovered by British archaeologists during the colonial period following the Chinese travellers' records.