On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c20.97

v2.c20.97

The legend which Yuan-chuang here relates about the founding of Rājagriha in the time of king Bimbisāra is apparently a distortion of the legend about the founding of Old Rājagriha, the Kuśāgrapur of our author.¹ Another city, the name of which is not given, was afflicted by frequent conflagrations, and the inhabitants removed to the site on which they built Rājagriha. There are, however, various explanations of the name given by later commentators or historians.² The old city called Rājagriha is represented as a very ancient one, the third in the history of the world.³ That New Rājagriha was the work of Bimbisāra or his son and successor seems to agree with some of the Buddhist scriptures.