History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.t2.96

v5.c74.t2.96

Ancient Buddhist works show that Banaras was, in the times of Buddha (5th Century B C. at the latest), a great and famous city like Campā, Rājagṛha, Śrāvastī, Sāketa and Kauśāmbī (vide Mahāparinibbānasutta, S. B. E. vol. XI p 99 and Mahāsudassanasutta, ibid. p. 247). The very fact that Buddha attained Enlightenment at Gayā (which was an out of the way place and on the borders, if at all, of Āryāvarta), thought it necessary to travel hundreds of miles from Gayā and preach his doctrines at Banaras in the Deer-park and set rolling the wheel of the kingdom of Dharma at that place, clearly indicates that Banaras had then become a very holy place and was in the centre of all Aryan activities and culture (vide S. B. E. vol. XI. p. 153 and vol. XIII p 90, Mahāvagga, S. B. E. vol. 17 p. 21). King Brahmadatta of Banaras figures in many *jātaka* stories. Hardly any part of the *jātaka* tales can be placed earlier than the 3rd century B. C. But it may be admitted that Banaras was well-known as the capital of Brahmadatta kings several centuries before Christ. The Matsyapurāṇa 273, while enumerating hundreds of kings bearing the same surnames, states that there were 100 Brahmadattas and 100 Kāśis and Kuśas ¹⁴¹² But the very fact that Brahmadattas are separately mentioned from the Kāśis largely reduces the value of this piece of information. The ancient Jain works also speak of Banaras and Kāśī. In the Kalpasūtra it is said that Arhat Pārśva was born in Banaras in the month of Caitra on the 4th day of the dark fortnight (S B. E. vol. XXII p. 271) and that when Mahāvīra died the 18 confederate kings of Kāśī and Kosala along with other kings of the Licchavis and Mallakis instituted an illumination on the day of the New Moon (ibid. p. 266). Aśvaghoṣa appears to identify Vārāṇasī with Kāśī when he says in his Buddhacarita 'Having entered Vārāṇasī, the Jina (Buddha) illumining the city with his light filled the minds of all the inhabitants of Kāśī with excessive interest.'¹⁴¹³ The Buddhacarita further speaks of Buddha as having gone under the shadow of a tree near Vanārā (S. B. E. vol. 49 part 1 p.