The Ancient Geography of India/Kosambi
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15. Kosambi.
[p.391]:The city of Kosambi was one of the most celebrated places in ancient India, and its name was famous amongst Brahmans as well as Buddhists. The city is said to have been founded by Kusamba the tenth in descent from Pururavas ; but its fame begins only with the reign of Chakra, the eighth in descent from
[p.392]: Arjun Pandu,who made Kosambi his capital after Hastinapura had been swept away by the Ganges.
Kosambi is mentioned in the 'Ramayana,' the earliest of the Hindu poems, which is generally allowed to have been composed before the Christian era. The story of Udayana king of Kosambi, is referred to by the poet Kalidasa in his ' Megha-duta,' or ' Cloud Messenger,' where he says that Avanti (or Ujain) is great with the number of those versed in the tale of Udayana."[1] Now, Kalidasa flourished shortly after A.D. 500. In the 'Vrihat Katha,' of Somadeva, the story of Udayana is given at full length, but the author has made a mistake in the genealogy between the two Satanikas. Lastly, the kingdom of Kosambi or Kosamba Mandala, is mentioned in an inscription taken from the gateway of the fort of Khara which is dated in Samvat 1092, or A.D. 1035, at which period it would appear to have been independent of Kanoj.[2] Kosambi, the capital of Vatsa Raja, is the scene of the pleasing drama of ' Ratnavali,' or the 'Necklace,' which was composed in the reign of King Harsha Deva, who is most probably the same as Harsha Vardhana of Kanoj, as the opening prelude describes amongst the assembled audience "princes from various realms recumbent at his feet."[3] This we know from [[Hwen Thsang]] to have boon true of the Kanoj prince, but which even a Brahman could scarcely have asserted of Harsha Deva of Kashmir. The date of this notice will therefore lie between 607 and 650 A.D.
[p.393]: But the name of Udayana, king of Kosambi, was perhaps even more famous amongst the Buddhists. In the 'Mahawanso,'[1] which was composed in the fifth century, the venerable Yasa is said to have fled from Vaisali to Kosambi just before the assembly of the second Buddhist Synod. In the Lalita Vistara,[2] which was translated into Chinese between 70 and 76 A.D., and which could not, therefore, have been composed later than the beginning of the Christian era, Udayana Vatsa, son of Satanika, king of Kosambi, is said to have been born on the same day as Buddha. In other Ceylonese books Kosambi is named as one of the nineteen capital cities of ancient India. Udayana Vatsa is also known to the Tibetans[3] as the king of Kosambi. In the ' Ratnavali ' he is called Vatsa Raja, or king of the Vatsas, and his capital Vatsa-pattana, which is therefore only another name for Kosambi.
In this famous city also Buddha is said to have spent the sixth and ninth years of his Buddhahood.[4] Lastly, Hwen Thsang relates that the famous statue of Buddha, in red sandal-wood, which was made by King Udayana during the lifetime of the Teacher, still existed under a stone dome in the ancient palace of the kings.[5]
The site of this great city, the capital of the later Pandu princes, and the shrine of the most sacred of all the statues of Buddha, has long been sought in vain. The Brahmans generally asserted that it stood either on the Ganges or close to it, and the discovery
[p.394]: of the name of Kosambi mandala, or " Kingdom of Kosambi," in an inscription over the gateway of the fort of Khara, seem to confirm the general belief, although the south-west bearing from Prayaga, or Allahabad, as recorded by Hwen Thsang, points unmistakably to the line of the Jumna.
In January, 1861, Mr. Bayley informed me that he believed the ancient Kosambi would be found in the old village of Kosam, on the Jumna, about 30 miles above Allahabad. In the following month I met Babu Siva Prasad, of the educational department, who takes a deep and intelligent interest in all archaeological subjects, and from him I learned that Kosam is still known as Kosambi-nagar, that it is even now a great resort of the Jains, and that only one century ago it was a large and flourishing town. This information was quite sufficient to satisfy me that Kosam was the actual site of the once famous Kosambi. Still, however, there was no direct evidence to show that the city was situated on the Jumna ; but this missing link in the chain of evidence I shortly afterwards found in the curious legend of Bakkula, which is related at length by Hardy.[1] The infant Bakkula was born at Kosambi, and while his mother was bathing in the Jumna, he accidentally fell into the river, and being swallowed by a fish, was carried to Benares. There the fish was caught and sold to the wife of a nobleman, who on opening it found the young child still alive inside, and at once adopted it as her own. The true mother hearing of this wonderful escape of the infant, proceeded to Benares, and demanded the return of the child, which was of course refused. The matter was then referred
[p.395]: to the king, who decided that both of the claimants were mothers of the child, — the one by maternity, the other by purchase. The child was accordingly named Bahula, that is, of "two kulas., or races." He reached the age of 90 years without once having been ill, when he was converted by the preaching of Buddha, who declared him to be " the chief of that class of his disciples who were free from disease." After this he is said to have lived 90 years more, when he became an arhat, or Buddhist saint.
As this legend of Bakula is suffcient to prove that the famous city of Kausambi was situated on the Jumna, it now only remains to show that the distance of Kosam from Allahabad corresponds with that between Prayag and Kosambi, as recorded by Hwen Thsang. Unfortunately this distance is differently stated in the life and in the travels of the Chinese pilgrim. In the former, the distance is given as 50 li, and in the latter as 500 li, whilst in the return journey to China, the pilgrim states that between Prayag and Kosambi he travelled for seven days through a vast forest and over bare plains.[1] Now, as the village of Kosam is only 31 miles from the fort of Allahabad, the last statement would seem to preclude all possibility of its identification with the ancient Kosambi. But strange to say, it affords the most satisfactory proof of their identity ; for the subsequent route of the pilgrim to Sankissa is said to have occupied one month, and as the whole distance from Prayag to Sankissa is only 200 miles, the average length of the pilgrim's daily march was not more than 5^ miles. This slow progress is most satisfactorily accounted for, by
- ↑ Julien's 'Hiouen Thsang,' i. 121 ; ii. 283 ; and i. 260
[p.396]: the fact that the march from Prayag to Sankissa was a religious procession, headed by the great king Harsha Vardhana of Kanoj, with a train of no less than 18 tributary kings, besides many thousands of Buddhist monks, and all the crowd of an Indian camp. According to this reckoning, the distance from Prayag to Kosambi would be 38 miles, which corresponds very closely with the actual road distance as I found it. By one route on going to Kosam, I made the distance 37 miles, and by the return route 35 miles. The only probable explanation of Hwen Thsang's varying distances of 50 li and 500 li that occurs to me is, that as he converted the Indian yojanas into Chinese li at the rate of 40 Ji per yojana or of 10 li per kos, he must have written 150 li, the equivalent of 15 kos, which is the actual distance across the fields for foot passengers from Kosam to the fort of Allahabad, according to the reckoning of the people of Kosam itself. But whether this explanation be correct or not, it is quite certain that the present Kosam stands on the actual site of the ancient Koshambi ; for not only do the people themselves put forward this claim, but it is also distinctly stated in an inscription of the time of Akbar, which is recorded on the great stone pillar, still standing in the midst of the ruins, that this is Kaushambi-pura.
The present ruins of Kosambi consist of an immense fortress formed of earthen ramparts and bastions, with a circuit of 23,100 feet, or exactly 4 miles and 3 furlongs. The ramparts have a general height of from 30 to 35 feet above the fields ; but the bastions are considerably higher, those on the north face rising to upwards of 50 feet, while those at the south-west and south-cast angles arc more than 60 feet. Originally
[p.397]: there were ditches all around the fortress, but at present there are only a few shallow hollows at the foot of the rampart. The length of the north front is 4500 feet, of the south front 6000, of the east front 7500 feet, and of the west front 5100, or altogether 23,100 feet. The difference in length between the north and south fronts is due to the original extension of the fortress on the river face ; but the difference between the east and west fronts is, I believe, chiefly, if not wholly, due to the loss of the south-west angle of the ramparts by the gradual encroachment of the Jumna. There are no traces now left of the western half of the ramparts on the southern face, and the hotises of the village of Garhawa are standing on the very edge of the cliff overhanging the river. The reach of the river also, from the Pakka Burj at the south-west angle of the fortress up to the hill of Prabhasa, a clear straight run of 4 miles, bears 12 degrees to the north of east, whereas in the time of Hwen Thsang there were two stupas and a cave at a distance of 1½ miles to the south-west of Koshambi. From all these concurring circumstances, I conclude that the west front of the fortress was originally as nearly as possible of the same length as the east front. This would add 2400 feet, or nearly half a mile, to the length of the west front, and would increase the whole circuit of the ramparts to 4 miles and 7 furlongs, which is within one furlong of the measurement of 5 miles, or 30 li, recorded by Hwen Thsang. In the three main points therefore of name, size, and position, the present Kosam corresponds most exactly with the ancient Kosambi as it is described by the Chinese pilgrim in the seventh century.
[p.398]: According to the text of Hwen Thsang, the district of Koshambi was 6000 li, or 1000 miles, in circuit, which is quite impossible, as it was closely surrounded on all sides by other districts. I would, therefore, read hundreds for thousands, and fix its circuit at 600 li, or 100 miles.