Vol. X, No. 9. J Notes on Ancient Anga. 333 



[N.S.] 



CHAPTER II. 

 Principal Towns. 



All authorities, whether Hindu. Jaina or Buddhist, agree 

 «. .. that Campa was the capital of ancient 



Champanagara. . . n S wr ., _ ., . , 



& Anga. The Katha-sant-sngara, how- 



ever, says that the capital of Anga was Vitankapura, 1 but it 

 cannot be identified with Campa, as it was "situated on the 

 shore of the sea" : it is evidently a fictitious name. But the 

 name of Campa does not appear in the Ramayana, at least in 

 the Bengal recension. According to this work Romapada 

 was king of the country of Anga. The name of Campa 

 appears for the first time in the Mahabharata, and it was the 

 capital Karna. From the Puranas it appears that the town of 

 Campa was founded by Carapa, the great-grandson of Roma- 

 pada of the Ramayana.' 2 Its ancient name was MalinI, 8 and 

 hence to distinguish it from the towns of the same name 

 it was called Campa-Malinl. In the Jataka stories it is also 

 called Kala-Campa, 4 but it is difficult to trace the origin 

 of this name. Its present name is Campa nagara. and 

 it is situated at a distance of about four miles to the 

 west of Bhagalpur. It gradually rose into importance, became 

 celebrated as an emporium of commerce on account of 

 its situation on the Ganges, and at the time of Buddha's 

 death it was considered as one of the six great cities of India, 

 the other five being Rajagrha, SravastI, Saketa, KoSambi and 



Benares, so that Ananda asked him to have hi9 parinirbbana 

 in one of those cities instead of at an insignificant town like 

 KuSlnara 5 Pataliputra had only recently come into existence 

 as a fortified frontier town of Magadha to repel the attack of 

 the Vajjians. Campa increased in wealth, and traders sailed 

 from it to Suvarnabhumi (Burma) for trading purposes. 6 

 Emigrants from Carapa to Cochin China named their settlement 

 after this famous town of India. 7 The celebrity of the capital 



1 Tawney: Katha-sarit-sagara, ii, ch. 82, p. 272: i, ch. 25. pp. 206, 



207; ch. 2<>,p. 225. 



2 Matsya P.. ch. 48 : Visnu P., Pt. iv, ch. 18. 



8 Matsya P.. ch, 48, v. 97: " ^ «HI 7£ V^t ^*JT W *F 



* Jataka (Cam. Ed.), vi : Maha-Janaka Jataka (No. 539), p. 20 ; 

 Vidhura Pandita Jataka (No. 545), p. 127. Perhaps it was called kala or 

 black Campa in contradistinction to Campa of the snow-clad Himalaya, the 

 ancient capital of Kumaun, now called Champauti (Campavati of the 



Mahabharat). 



* Mahaparinibbana Sutta, ch. v; Mahasudassan Sutta, ch. i. 



6 Jataka (Cam. Ed.), vi, No. 539, p. 20; Rhys Davids: Bud. Ind., 

 9f>. 



^ Im.d. Ant., vi, 229; I-tsing, 58. 



