1832.] Abstract of the Contents of the Dul-va. 7 



A discrepancy apparently of a more decided character occurs as 

 to the place of Sakya's nativity. This has been hitherto considered 

 to have been Kikata or Kagadha, the modern province of Behar, 

 the latter being evidently intended by that country in Jambu Dwip, 

 or India, which is called Mukata by the Burmese and the Siamese, 

 Mo-ki-to by the Chinese, and Makata Kokf by the Japanese, accord- 

 ing to several European writers of authority. 



Now according to the Kah-gyur the birth place of Sakya is not in 

 Magadha, but in Kosala, or Oude, at a city called Kapila or Kapila- 

 vastU) and this latter term explains the nature of the mistake. The 

 Chinese specify Kau-pi-le, the Burmese Ka-pi-la-vot, the Siamese Ka- 

 pi-la-pat, the Cingalese Kimboul-pat, and the Nipalese Kapila-piir, 

 as the city in which their legislator was born — considering, therefore, 

 Makata to be the principality or province in which it was situated. 

 For some centuries before Christ, and about the probable period of Sa- 

 kya's nativity, the greater part of central India was subject to Magadha ; 

 and it is not extraordinary therefore that Kosala, in which Kapila is situ- 

 ated, was considered as a subordinary, and may have been a tributary or 

 dependant principality, and so far therefore Kapila was in the kingdom, 

 though not the country of Magadha. At any rate, that Magadha was 

 the first and principal scene of Sakya's labours is universally admitted. 

 Minutely accurate topography, and history, are not to be expected in these 

 cases; andit isnot wonderful that the followers ofBud'dha, who derived 

 their traditions from sources of a less authentic description than those 

 of Tibet, should have placed Kapila in Behar, or elevated its chief, a 

 petty Raja, to be king of central India. The latter mistake is commit- 

 ed by the Mongols, who as neighbours of the Tibetans, should have 

 known better ; yet even they call Sodu dun i, the father of Sakya, king of 

 Magadha, Der Konigvon Magadha. (Klaproth, Asia Polyglotta, 123.) 



The precise situation of Kapila, it is not now easy to ascertain. 

 The Tibetan writers place it near Kailas, on the river Bhagirathi, or as 

 elsewhere stated, on the Rohini river. These indications, connected with 

 its dependency on Kosala, render it likely that it was in Rohilkhund, or 

 in Kamaon, or perhaps even rather more to the eastward ; for the river 

 now known as the Rohini is one of the feeders of the Gandak — at any 

 rate it must have been on the borders of Nepal ; as it is stated that 

 when the Sdkyas were dispossessed of their city, those who escaped 

 retired into that country. 



Another question is, who were the Sdkyas ? The Bud'dha traditions 

 trace them from Ikshwaku, a prince of the solar line, and ancestor of 

 the race that reigned in Ayodhya or Oude. The name however does 



