Vaiṡālī.
Vaiṡālī (in Pāli Vesālī, now Besārh) lies twenty miles north of Hāji-pur, on the left bank of the Ganges, and twenty-seven north-east of Patnā. This town (the city of the Liććhavis) is celebrated as the scene of the second Council ([p. 57]). Near it, at a place called Bakhra, is a celebrated ancient pillar surmounted by a lion (see Cunningham, i. 59). Vaiṡālī, however, is chiefly noted as one of the places where Gautama often preached and taught, and where he stopped on his way to Kusinārā, the place of his death. His usual residence was in a Vihāra, described by Fā-hien as double-galleried, and in a garden presented to him by the courtesan Amba-pālī, whom he converted and induced to live a virtuous life. He also resided for the fifth year of his teaching in a building called the Kūṭāgāra[209] hall.
Hiouen Thsang speaks of the town and of the objects of interest round it thus (Beal, ii. 66-75):—
Both heretics and believers are found here living together. There are several hundred monasteries (Saṅghārāmas) which are mostly dilapidated. There are also several Deva temples, occupied by sectaries of different kinds. The followers of the Nirgranthas (i. e. of the Jains) are very numerous.
To the north is a Stūpa which indicates the place where Tathāgata stopped and took leave of the Liććhavis, on his way to Kuṡi-nagara to die. Wishing him to quit the world, Māra (compare [p. 41]) came to Buddha and said, ‘You have now dwelt sufficiently long in the world. Those whom you have saved from the circling streams of transmigration are as numerous as the sand.’ The Buddha replied, ‘No, those who are saved are as the grains of dust on my nail; those who are not saved are like the grains of dust on the whole earth. Nevertheless, after three months I shall die.’ Māra hearing this was rejoiced, and departed.
Both within and without the city of Vaiṡālī and all round it, the sacred vestiges are so numerous, that it would be difficult to recount them all. To the north-west is a Stūpa at the spot where Buddha dwelt when he recited the history of his former birth (Jātaka) as a Ćakra-vartin or Universal Monarch (compare [p. 423]) possessed of the seven treasures. To the south-east is a great Stūpa, marking the place where the convocation of the seven hundred sages and saints was held, one hundred and ten years after the Nirvāṇa of Buddha, to compel the monks who had broken the laws of Buddha to obey them.
It appears that the Liććhavis of Vaiṡālī obtained a large quantity of the relics of the Buddha’s body, and built a Stūpa over them.
According to Fā-hien they also erected a Stūpa over half the relics of the burnt body of Ānanda (see [p. 47] of this volume), the other being deposited near Rāja-gṛiha. His narrative runs as follows:—
When Ānanda was going from Magadha to Vaiṡālī, wishing his Pari-nirvāṇa to take place there, king Ajāta-ṡatru heard of his intention, and set out with his retinue to follow him.
The Liććhavis, too, when they heard that Ānanda was coming to their city, went out to meet him. In this way both parties arrived together at the river, and Ānanda, thinking to himself that he ought to please both, burnt his own body in the middle of the river, and thus attained Pari-nirvāṇa in a fiery ecstasy of Samādhi. Then his body was divided into two, so that each got one half as a sacred relic (Legge, pp. 75-77).
Kauṡāmbī.
Kauṡāmbī (in Pāli Kosāmbī), now Kosam[210], on the river Jumnā, about thirty miles from Allahābād, was once a place hallowed by many Brāhmanical associations, and is mentioned in the Rāmāyaṇa. It was the capital of the Kauṡāmba country, and is said to have been founded by Kuṡāmba, tenth in descent from Purūravas. Without doubt it was one of the most ancient cities of India. It was also the city of King Udayana, whose story is alluded to by the greatest of all Sanskrit poets, Kāli-dāsa, in his ‘Cloud-Messenger[211].’ Furthermore, Kauṡāmbī is the city in which the scene of the Sanskṛit drama Ratnāvalī was laid[212].
The Buddha resided there in the sixth and ninth years of his Buddhahood, and probably visited the place at other times. This was the chief cause of its reputation in connexion with Buddhism. But it also derived its sacred character from the fact that it contained the celebrated sandal-wood image[213] of the Buddha, believed to have been carved during his life-time, by a sculptor sent by Moggallāna (see last line, [p. 414]) at King Udayana’s request, to the Trayastriṉṡa heaven, when the Buddha was there preaching the Law to his mother (see [p. 207]).