JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



Part I— HISTORY, LITERATURE, &c. 

 No. IV.— 1865. 



Report of the Proceedings of the Archceologieal Surveyor to the Govern- 

 ment of India for the Season of 1862-63. — By Major-General 

 A. Cunningham, Archceologieal Surveyor to the Govt, of India. 



[Received 3rd Feb., 1865.] [Read 1st March, 1865.] 



(Continued from page 193.) 



IX.— SANKISA. 



235. The site of Sankisa was discovered by me in 1842 ; but it was 

 not until the end of 1862 that I got an opportunity of exploring the 

 ruins at leisure. The name of the place is written Seng-hia-she by the 

 Chinese pilgrims, a spelling which is well preserved in the Sankisa of 

 the present day, and which represents with considerable faithfulness 

 the Sangkdsya of Sanskrit. Hwen Thsang calls it also by the name of 

 Kie-pi-tha, or Kapitha, of which I was unable to discover any trace. 

 Sankisa was one of the most famous places of Buddhist pilgrimage, as 

 it was there that Buddha was believed to have descended from the 

 Trayastrinsa heaven by a ladder of gold or gems, accompanied by the 

 gods Indra and Brahma. According to this curious legend, Maya, the 

 mother of Buddha, died seven days after his birth, and ascended at once 

 to the Trayastrinsa heaven, the abode of the 33 gods, of whom Indra 

 was the chief. But as she had no opportunity in this abode of the gods 

 of hearing the law of Buddha, her pious son ascended to the Trayas- 

 trinsa heaven, and preached for three months in her behalf. He then 



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