Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c30.86

c30.86

**Southern Kosala (Vidarbha).** Southern Kosala (identified by Cunningham with Vidarbha or Berar) had "above 100 monasteries and about 10,000 Brethren, all Mahāyānists", and was famous as the home of the great Nāgārjuna for whom the king of the country had quarried in a mountain a wonderful five-storeyed monastery, probably the Pigeon Monastery of Fa-Hien. "The monastery had cloisters and lofty halls; these halls were in five tiers, each with four courts, with temples containing gold life-size images of the Buddha of perfect artistic beauty. It was well supplied with running water, and the chambers were lighted by windows cut in the rock... In the topmost hall was the library and in the lowest were the laymen attached to the monastery and the stores, and the three intermediate halls were the lodgings of the Brethren" (p. 201). Here the great scholar Deva who had come from 'Sengkala' to have a discussion with Nāgārjuna became his disciple. The king, who was the patron and friend of Nāgārjuna, was a Sātavāhana ('Sha-to-po-ha') and as the Sātavāhanas ruled from second century *B.C.* to the third century *A.D.* Nāgārjuna's date falls within that period. The mountain of his monastery is identified with that on which stands the famous Hindu temple of Śrī-Śailam by Burgess.