7. Radzagio, or Radzagihra, was the capital of Magatha or South Behar. Its situation is well ascertained. Its ruins have been minutely described by several travellers. It was situated on the left bank of the same small river as Behar, but a few miles south of that place. The mountains or peaks surrounding that ancient city are full of caves, tenanted in former ages by Buddhist ascetics. The mountain Gayathitha, where Buddha preached his famous sermon, lies in the neighbourhood. It is perhaps the same as the Gridrakuta, or the Vulture’s Peak.
8. The Buddhist annals often mention the country of the middle or Mitzima-desa. It comprised the countries of Mathura, Kosala, Kapila, Wethalee, and Magatha; that is to say, the provinces of Agra, Delhi, Oude, and South Behar.
Magatha, south of the Ganges, had for capital at first Radzagio, until Kalathoka, a hundred years after the death of Gaudama, transferred the seat of his empire to Pataliputra, or Palibothra. The celebrated Weloowon monastery was situated in the neighbourhood of Radzagio, and was offered to Buddha by King Pimpathara, the ruler of that country.
9. Kosala is the same as the kingdom of Ayodya, now called Oude. Thawattie, or Crawastu, was the capital of a district of that country. It was situated nearly at the same place where at present stands the modern town of Fyzabad. According to the legend, the distance from Radzagio to Thawattie is forty-five youdzanas of about seven miles. Twelve hundred paces from that city was to be met the renowned monastery of Dzetawon, or the grove of the victorious. Many ruins that have been visited and examined leave no doubt regarding the certain position of Thawattie.
10. Thing-ka-tha, or Tsam-pa-tha, lies in an eastern direction between Mathura and Kanouj, near the site occupied by the town of Ferruckabad. Captain A. Cunningham has met with the ruins of that place in the village of Samkassa, on the left bank of the Kalinadi, twelve cos from Ferrukabad. According to a popular tradition, it was destroyed in 1183 by the King of Kanouj, at the instigation of the Brahmins, who endeavoured by every means in their power to sweep all the remnants of Buddhism from those parts of the peninsula. It was in that place that Buddha arrived on his return from the seats of Nats, whither he had gone to preach the law to his mother. According to the legend, the distance from Thawattie to Thing-ka-tha is thirty youdzanas in a westerly direction. Fa-Hian says that he saw in one of the temples of that place the ladder Buddha had used when he came down from the seats of Nats.
11. The village of Patali is the very place where was subsequently established the renowned city of Palibothra, capital of Magatha. The place had reached the height of its glory when Megasthenes, the ambassador of Seleucus, visited it in the reign of Chandragupta. In the time of Buddha it was but an insignificant place. There was, however, a sort of fort to arrest the inroads of some troublesome neighbours. Buddha, when he passed through that place, predicted that it would become a flourishing town. The prediction began to have its accomplishment one hundred years after his death, when King Kalathoka left Radzagio, and removed the seat of his empire to Palibothra near the place where the modern city of Patna stands.
12. The town of Wethalie is supposed to have stood north of Patna on the Gunduck, not far from the place where that river joins the Ganges. The large village of Besarh, twenty miles north of Hajipur, occupies a portion of the place on which stood Wethalie. In the seventh century Buddhism was there on its decline; false doctrines, as says one of the Chinese pilgrims, were much prevailing. Nothing was to be seen at that time but a ruined town and many monasteries, almost deserted, and also falling into decay. Many signs of ancient ruins are also to be met with between Besarh and Bakra; they belong to the same city, which was both populous and wealthy. Its circumference was about twelve miles, including the two modern places of Bakra and Besarh. All the mounds of ruins have been carefully searched and described by A. Cunningham, and the sites of ancient tanks exactly laid down. There is a curious episode in the legend connected with the name of Wethalie. A courtesan, who, despite her dishonourable calling, occupied a brilliant position in the country, courted the favour of feeding Buddha with all his followers. The latter accepted her invitation, and received a beautiful grove, which she presented to him and to the assembly. It does not appear that her avocation was looked upon as a disgraceful one. It is probable that persons of this description were as much for the intellectual as for the sensual enjoyments of their visitors. There existed in Greece and at Rome something similar to what is here alluded to. According to Plutarch, Aspasia at Athens was courted by Pericles on account of her high literary attainments and political abilities. Socrates visited her sometimes in company with his disciples. Visitors took occasionally their wives to her place, for the purpose of enjoying the charms of her highly refined and instructive conversation. The same philosophical biographer does not scruple to quote sometimes the sayings of the celebrated Roman courtesan, named Flora.
13. Nala or Nalanda was a Brahmin village about seven miles north of Radzagio. It was the birthplace of the great disciple Thariputra. It seems that there was there a sort of Academia, whither the learned of Radzagio resorted to discourse on moral and philosophical subjects. The magnificent ruins, which subsist up to this day in that locality, have been minutely examined, measured, and described by several visitors. The great temple must, in the opinion of A. Cunningham, have been built in the sixth century of our era.
14. Kootheinaron is the place in the neighbourhood of which Buddha entered into the state of Neibban, or died. Some antiquarians, laying much stress on the name of a village up to this day called Kushia, have placed the position of Kootheinaron on the road between Betiah and Goruckpore. On that spot is to be seen a pyramidical-looking mound of bricks, over which spreads a large banyan tree. But, from the narrative of the legend, we must look for the site of Kootheinaron nearer to the river Higniarati or Gunduck, since the spot where Gaudama died was near to the city, and is described as surrounded on three sides by the river. Kootheinaron was situated a little north or north-west of Betiah, on or near the banks of the Gunduck. There too ruins are to be seen, which doubtless will prove to be those of Kootheinaron. The name may have subsequently migrated to the locality above mentioned.
15. Papilawana, the capital of the Mauria princes, was situated between the Rapti and the Gunduck, nearly east of Goruckpore. South of that place Fa-Hian visited the dzedi of the coals. The Mauria princes, agreeably to the text of the legend, having come too late for sharing in the partition of the relics, took with them the coals that remained after the cremation of Buddha’s remains, carried them into their country, and built a dzedi over them. It was not far from that place that the Brahmin Dauna built another dzedi over the vessel that had contained Buddha’s relics.