1817.] On the route of Fa-hian through Behar. 967 



Hian's time, cannot for this reason be that alluded to, but there have 

 been other towers, of which nothing but the bare traces now remain. 

 By the fourth tower, (upon equally if not stronger grounds) must have 

 been meant that at Koosha Vihara in Assam, indeed we know that it 

 was there that Sakya obtained " Nirvana" (died). This happened beneath 

 two Sal trees ; we are further told that a Dagope or Chaitya was erected 

 there over his ashes, and which were subsequently distributed over the 

 country, and for which armies were even brought into the field. See 

 life of Sakya, Vol. XIX. Researches, p. 317. I do not think the text 

 warrants our supposing that four great towers were erected in comme- 

 moration of the four principal events of Budha's life at Gay a. 



We must now turn to Chapter XXXIII, in which we learn further 

 of the vicinity of Budh Gaya. 



" From the Pei-to" tree you proceed three li, to a hill called the 

 cock's foot (^t^^^) " Kookootpada," it is here that the great Kya Che 

 (Maha Kasyapa) pierced the mountain for the purpose of entering it, 

 and suffered none else to enter the same way. At a considerable 

 distance from this is a lateral hole, in which is the entire body of Kya 



scene of this event in Sakya's life, as the following couplet from the Lalita vistdra will 

 testify : 



" I will go to Benares ; having arrived at the city of Kashi, I will turn the wheel of 

 the law, which is revolving among mankind." (J. A. S. vol. VI. p. 572.) 



The tower to commemorate Sakya's apotheosis was unquestionably, on the banks of 

 the Gunduk, in the neighbourhood of Bettiah ; and not in Assam as Tibetan writers 

 allege. Fa-hian names the place Kiu i na ki£, and Hiuan thsang, Kiu chi na kie lo, 

 an obvious transcription of ^f^TJTx: Kusinagara. Mr. Liston in J. A. S. vol. VI. 

 p. 477, describes some Buddhist remains at a village named Russia, in Gorakpore, 

 consisting of a pyramidal mound of bricks and other objects which seem well worthy of 

 further investigation. These have reference, according to popular tradition, to Mata 

 Koonr, which Mr. Prinsep took to be a corruption of Kumdra, the god of war,—' the 

 defunct Kumara.' Professor Wilson, however, thinks that Mata Kuanr, the 

 ' dead prince,' applies to Sakya Sinha. The only difficulty in regard to this latter 

 ascription is, that the term prince is never applied by Buddhists to Sakya, after his 

 adoption of ascetic life. It is to be hoped that further enquiry will clear up this 

 point. The subject of antiquities is by no means exhausted in the neighbourhood of the 

 Gunduk— the Hi lian of Fa-hian, (f%"5T^jp hiranya, gold,) the Hiranna-wattiya of the 

 Pali annals, and without doubt the Erranoboas of the Greeks.— Eds. 



