Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c22.39

c22.39

That Gayā was a famous place of p'grimage during the Gupta age is also clear from the accounts of the Chinese pilgrims. Fa-hien visited the place about the beginning of the fifth century when the locality offered a rather deserted appearance.³ According to Hiuen-tsang, who visited Gayā about 637 A.D., “This city was strongly situated but had few inhabitants; there were about 1000 Brāhmaṇa families, descendants of the original Ṛṣi, and these were not subject to the king, and were treated by all with reverence......From ancient times, sovereigns who have spread their good government to distant peoples and in merit have excelled previous dynasties, all ascend this mountain (the Gayā mountain to the south-west of the city) and solemnly announce what they have done. On the top of the mountain was a stone Tope (Stūpa) above 100 feet high built by Aśoka at the place where Buddha uttered the Pao-yun and other Sūtras.”⁴ The Pao-yun has been taken to be the Ratnagarbhasūtra said to have been communicated to the disciples of the Buddha, assembled on the Gaya-śiras or Gaya-śīrṣa (Gayā-śiras or Gayā-śīrṣa) hill, identified by many scholars with the modern Brahmayoni hill near Gayā. The objections to this identification and to the location of ancient Gayā at the site of the present city of that name are not quite convincing. Moreover, those who object do not say that the ancient Gayā tīrtha lay far away from present Gayā in a region outside Bihar. The Brāhmaṇas of Gayā referred to in the Chinese account are no doubt the ancestors of the celebrated Gayāla Brāhmaṇas of today. These Brāhmaṇas are mentioned in the Śaktipur copper-plate inscription⁵ of king Lakṣmaṇasena (circa 1179-1206 A.D.) of Bengal. They appear to have claimed descent from Rājarṣi Gaya. Hiuen-tsang’s observations show beyond doubt that Gayā was already a famous holy place long before the seventh century if not actually in the age of the Maurya emperor Aśoka (circa 269-232 B.C.). But there is evidence to show that Gayā is a much older *tirtha* even earlier than the age of the Buddha.