Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c12.732

v1.c12.732

Kapilavatthu.—A city near the Himālaya, capital of the Sākyans (q.v.). It was founded by the sons of Okkāka, on the site of the hermitage of the sage Kapila—see Kapila (3).¹ Near the city was the Lumbinīvana (q.v.) where the Buddha was born, and which became one of the four places of pilgrimage for the Buddhists. Close to Kapilavatthu flowed the river Rohiṇī, which formed the boundary between the kingdoms of the Sakyans and the Koliyans.² In the sixth century B.C. Kapilavatthu was the centre of a republic, at the head of which was Suddhodana. The administration and judicial business of the city and all other matters of importance were discussed and decided in the Santhāgārasālā.³ It was here that Viḍūḍabha was received by the Sakyans.⁴ The walls of the city were eighteen cubits high.⁵ From Kapilavatthu to the river Anomā, along the road taken by Gotama, when he left his home, was a distance of thirty yojanas.⁶ The city was sixty leagues from Rājagaha, and the Buddha took two months covering this distance when he visited his ancestral home, in the first year after his Enlightenment. On this journey the Buddha was accompanied by twenty thousand monks, and Kāludāyī went on ahead as harbinger. The Buddha and his company ilved in the Nigrodhārāma near the city and, in the midst of his kinsmen, as he did at the foot of the Gaṇḍamba, the Buddha performed the Yamakapāṭihāriya to convince them of his powers.⁷