Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c13.s2.77

c13.s2.77

Cunningham, however, in identifying Kapilavatthu, believed that the position of the city could be fixed within very narrow limits by many concurring data. "According to the Buddhist chronicles of Tibet, Kapilavastu or Kapilanagara was founded by some descendants of the solar hero Gotama,⁶ on the bank of a lake near the river Rohiṇī in Kosala. Now the town of Nagar, or Nagar-Khās, that is 'the city', is situated on the eastern bank of the Chando Tāl, near a large stream named Kohāna, a tributary of the Rāpti, and in the northern division of Oudh beyond the Ghāgra river, and therefore in Kosala. To the west a small stream named Sidh falls into the lake."¹ Cunningham further suggests that Sidh (equivalent to Sanskrit *Siddha*) might refer to Kapila, whose hermitage was also on the bank of the lake opposite the city. Then he discusses the position of the river Rohiṇī which separated the Sakyan territory from that of the Koliyas, whose territory lay to the east of this river. Cunningham tentatively identifies the Koliyan capital Rāmagāma with the "village of Am Kohil, which is exactly 11 miles to the east of Nagar, and rather less than 3 miles from the nearest point of the Kohāna river," which he identifies with the ancient river Rohiṇī.²