Indian Antiquary Vol 01

SR No.: 032493
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 430
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 22 MB

Page 33

JANUARY 5, 1872.]
or six miles can, by any possibility be allowed, e.g. Bihár to Nálanda " one yojaná" actual distance 5 or 6 miles; Patna to Bihár 9 yojanasactual distance about 54 miles; Nálanda to Rajgir one yojana, actual distance-5 or 6 miles. For these reasons I consider a yojana as equivalent to a distance of between 5 and 6 miles.
GEOGRAPHY OF MAGADHA.
I now proceed to follow the text of Mr. Beal page 110, chapter 28. "From this city [Patna] proceeding in a south-easterly direction nine yójanas, we arrive at a small rocky hill standing by itself, on the top of which is a stone cell facing the south. On one occasion, when Buddha was sitting in the middle of this cell, the divine Sekra took with him his attendant musicians, each one provided with a five-stringed lute, and caused them to sound a strain in the place where Buddha was seated. Then the divine Sekra proposed forty-two questions to Buddha, writing each one of them singly with his finger upon a stone. The traces of these questions yet exist. There is also a Sanghárúma built upon this spot. Going south-west from this one yójana we arrive at the village of Ná-lo."
This hill is identified by General Couningham with Giryak. "The remains of Giryak" he writes" appear to me to correspond exactly with the accounts given by Fa-hHian of the Hill of the Isolated Rock." His reasons are twofold, 1st the position, and 2nd the supposed etymology, of Giryek, i.e., giri-eka ck giri. I think I shall be able to show beyond doubt that this identification is entirely erroneous.
Firstly, at Giryak there is no solitary hill at all, nor any hill which can be described as resembling in any way an eminence of that description. At Giryak terminates the rocky range of the Rajgir hills, which stretch from the neighbourhood of Gya to the banks of the Panchana, on which the village of Giryak stands, and, as a matter of fact, the hill which rises above the village-so far from being solitary-is a mere offshoot of Vipulagir at Rajgir and is not less than six miles in length.
Secondly, from the "solitary hill" Fah-Hian proceeded soUTH-WEST, one yojana, to Nála. Now Nála has been identified most satisfactorily with Bargáon [Cunningham page 469] by position and by the aid of inscriptions, but strange to say, Bargáon is exactly six miles NORTH-WEST of Giryak. If General Cunningham's identification of Giryak be right, Nalanda
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must have been situated somewhere to the south of the Rajgir hills, in the middle of the Nowádá valley, but, strange to say, he identifies it with Bargaon which is exactly north-west of the Rajgir hills in the centre of the Bihár valley. For this reason it is clear that "the hill of the solitary rock" could not be Giryak. The two identifications involve a dilemma, because no amount of argument can make Bargaon six miles south-west of Giryak, when physically it is six miles in the very opposite direction. The identification of Núlanda with Bargaon (Viháragráma) is undoubtedly right, and as a consequence, that of the "solitary hill" with Giryak-undoubtedly wrong. Strange to say, General Cunningham writes as one reason for identifying Nalanda with Bargáon (page 469)" Fah Hian places the hamlet of Ná-lo at one yojana, or seven miles from the hill of the isolated rock, i.e. from Giryak, and also the same distance from new Raja Grihá. This account agrees exactly with the position of Bargáon with respect to Giryak and Rajgir." Now in reality both translators agree in placing Núlanda to the south-west of the hill, and as a matter of fact Bargaon is north-west of Giryak.
I have no hesitation in identifying the "solitary hill" with the rocky peak at Bihar, which rises by itself in the midst of the plain covered with rice and poppy fields, and which gently slopes from the northern foot of the Rajgir hills to the banks of the Ganges itself. My reasons for so doing are: first,-correspondence of the relative distance and position of the Bihár rock and Patna, and of the solitary hill and Patáliputra; second, the agreement of the relative distance and position of the Bihár rock and Bargaon, and the "solitary hill" and Nalanda; third,-natural appearances of the Bihar rock.
Of Nalanda, Fah says, " this was the place of Sáriputra's birth. Sáriputra returned here to enter Nirvána. A town therefore was erected on this spot which is still in existence."
Nálanda corresponds with Bargáon, a spot still marked with the ruins of vast topes and temples.
"Going west from this one yojana we arrive at the new Rajgir." This corresponds with the large circuit of fortifications at the foot of the Baibhár and Vipula hills, exactly six miles to the south of the Barghon ruins. I therefore. think the direction given by the translators must be a mistake.
Ancient Geography of India, page 472.