Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c4: Chapter I: Geographical Location of Vedic and Buddhist Culture

Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c4

Language: English

v1.c4.6 — 3 parts

Chapter I: Geographical Location of Vedic and Buddhist Culture

v1.c4.1

A long period intervened between the Vedic people and the sacrificing Brāhmaṇas of Kuru-pañcāla. This period witnessed the growth and development of Brāhmaṇism and Brāhmaṇic sacrificial literature to an extent "unparalleled in the history of the world."¹ It is when this sacrificial system reached its climax about the 7th century B.C. that Buddhism made its appearance with its voice of protest. But this Brāhmaṇism rooted itself so deep in northern India and made its hierarchy so strong that non-Brāhmaṇic religions including Buddhism could hardly make its way into this stronghold.

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¹ Sir Charles Eliot, *Hinduism and Buddhism*, I, p. 53.

v1.c4.3

To go back to the advent of Aryans, it is the inference of scholars like Grierson, and Oldenberg,² that they entered into India in two groups, the later being separated from the earlier by a pretty long distance of time. The later group represented by the Kuru tribe settled in the mid-land comprising the country near the modern Delhi and its immediate north, while the earlier group settled in the outlands encircling the mid-land on the east, south and west. Prof. Keith thinks that the home of the Indo-Aryans of the earliest Vedic period lay in the countries "drained by the Indus river system, corresponding roughly to the N.W.-Frontier Province and the Punjab of the present day. The eastern limit was probably the Yamunā, though the Ganges was already known.”¹ In the subsequent Vedic period—that of the later Vedas and the Brāhmaṇas—the Indo-Aryan settlers gradually occupied the whole of Kuru-pañcāla country extending later to the Gangetic Delta of that river. Evidently Brāhmaṇic orthodoxy had its home in the mid-land while the outland represented unorthodoxy roughly in proportion to the distance from the actual centre of orthodoxy, because distance hindered the process of keeping on the same level the orthodoxy of the people of the remote districts while it is also recognised that between the two groups of the Aryans, there were differences of ideas, manners, customs and even perhaps of language. The tradition preserved in the Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa (I. 4. I. 10 f.) that Videgha Māthava, an Aryan conqueror, crossed the Sadānīrā (modern Gandak) but could not take with him Agni the sacrificial fire points to the fact that the Brāhmaṇas of the West considered themselves as superior both in culture and purity of descent to those of the Eastern countries (i.e., modern Tirhut and Behar). The diluted orthodoxy of the people of the eastern outland favoured the growth of systems of thought that did not care to be in correspondence with those prevailing in the Kuru-pañcāla country. The eastern outland comprised the Magadhan area as one of its components. It became a fruitful field for the growth of non-Brāhmaṇic religions like Jainism, Ājīvikism and Buddhism. There are evidences in the Piṭakas that Brāhmaṇical organization in Magadha and Videha was not so strong and well-knit as to resist effectively the progress of Buddhism. The members belonging to the community were not also so strong in dialectics as to defeat in argument Buddha or the more eminent of the Buddhist monks and several cases are recorded of debates between the Brāhmaṇas and the Buddhists, in which the former could hardly outwit the latter by exposing the hollowness of the logic underlying the arguments.

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² Oldenberg, *Buddha*, Excursus I.

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¹ Vedic Index, I, p. xiv.

v1.c4.6.1

The fact that the Brāhmaṇas of this part of the country are found, in the Buddhist works, to be tracing their descent from the Brāhmaṇas of the northern parts of India (udicca) shows that the source of nobility and purity of descent were believed to be existing in the north and not in the region where Buddhism flourished at first.¹ The inference drawn from the above evidences that Buddhism flourished only in the tract where the Brāhmaṇic orthodoxy was not so strong is partially corroborated by the evidences furnished by the Pāli texts. The first evidence is the definition of the Majjhima-desa of the Buddhists.² Its boundary is given as follows: On the east Kajaṅgala, a place 400 li east of Campā (Bhagalpur); on the south-east the river Salalavatī (Sarāvatī); on the south Satakaṇṇika; on the west the Brāhmaṇa district of Thūna (identified by S. N. Mazumdar with Sthāneśvara); and on the north Usīra-dhaja mountain (identified by Hultzsch with Usiragiri near Kankhal, Hardwar). The boundaries show that the Buddhists went a little beyond the limits of the less Brāhmaṇised country on the western side. The second and stronger evidence is the names of countries found in the Nikāyas. The northernmost places said to have been visited by Buddha are Kammassadhamma and Thullakoṭṭhita of the Kuru³ while the other place-names are included within the territories of Kāsi-Kosala, Aṅga-Magadha, Videha, and the eastern districts ruled by the several clans.

v1.c4.6.2

The third evidence is the list of places suggested by Ānanda as desirable for Buddha's parinibbāna, viz., Campā, Rājagaha, Sāvatthi, Sāketa, Kosambi and Benares.¹ Though the list is not expected to be exhaustive, it gives an idea of the area wherein resided the largest number of Buddhist lay-devotees. The fourth and last evidence that we can adduce regarding the early home of Buddhism is the list of countries, the rulers of which claimed a share of Buddha's relics for the purpose of worship. They are Licchavis of Vesālī, Sakyas of Kapilavatthu, Bulis of Allakappa, Koliyas of Rāmagāma, Brāhmaṇas of Veṭhadīpa, Mallas of Pāvā, Mallas of Kusinārā, Moriyas of Pipphalivana. It is further mentioned that besides the above who wanted to worship the relics there were other worshippers, in Rāmagāma, Gandhārapura, Kaliṅga,² but this seems to be a later interpolation. Though Buddhism was confined mainly to the territories mentioned above, the geographical knowledge of the Buddhists extended all over India; they were acquainted with the sixteen mahājanapadas and one suttanta, viz., the Mahāgovinda,³ relates how India was divided into eight dominions, thus, the Central kingdom of Reṇu and around it Kaliṅga (Dantapura), Assaka (Potana), Avanti (Māhissatī), Sovīra (Roruka), Videha (Mithilā), Aṅga (Campā), Kāsī (Bārāṇasi). There were, however, adherents hailing from distant countries like Madda and Gandhāra¹ in the north, Paithān in the south and Avanti in the west.

v1.c4.6.3

In the *Sutta Nipāta*, one of the oldest books of the Sutta-piṭaka, we have the following account of Bāvari’s tour: the ascetic Bāvari lived on the banks of the Godāvarī in the country of the Assakas (the district round Paithān)² ruled by king Aḷaka. He sent his sixteen disciples to Buddha. Their route lay through Paṭiṭṭhāna, Māhissati, Ujjeni, Gonaddha, Vedisa, Kosambī, Sāketa, Sāvatthi, Setavyā, Kapilavatthu, Kusinārā, Pāvā, Bhoganagara, and Vesālī (Pāsānaketiya).³ Most of the place-names are well-known and indicate that though Buddhism did not actually spread as far as the western part of the present Central Provinces, there were adherents hailing from these far off districts. Taking all the above evidences into consideration we may conclude that Buddhism during the first century of its existence did not have its centres beyond Sāvatthi on the north, Campā on the east, and Kosambī on the west and south, but there is no doubt that the fame of this religion spread all over western and northern India from the country of the Assakas to that of the Maddas of the North, attracting converts and lay-devotees from regions beyond the limits of *Majjhima-desa*.

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¹ R. Fick, *Sociale Gliederung* etc., transl. pp. 34, 40, 213.

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² Mazumdar's Intro. to *Cunningham's Geography*, p. xliii; B. C. Law, *Geography of Early Buddhism*, p. 2; Thomas, *Life of Buddha*, p. 13; B. C. Law, *Geographical Essays*, p. 8; *Divyāvadāna*, p. 21-2.

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³ See Infra.

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¹ Mahāparinibbāna-suttanta, p. 146: Santi hi bhante aññāni mahā-nagarāni seyyathidam Campā Rājagaham Sāvatthi Sāketam Kosambi Bārāṇasi. Ettha Bhagavā parinibbāyatu, ettha bahū khattiya-mahāsālā brāhmaṇa-mahāsālā gahapati-mahāsālā Tathāgate abhippasannā, te Tathāgatassa sarīra-pūjam karissanti ti.

Linked texts (2)

Śatapathabrāhmaṇa — Yājñavalkya & Śāṇḍilya (Vedic teacher), Sanskrit
Suttanipāta — Pāli