77 
1900.] W. Hoey — Identification of Kusinara, Vaisali, ^c. 
trace the villages or territorial divisions haraed in the plate, but inas- 
much as they contained mines of salt and iron the tract referred to must 
be near the bills. Is it not possible that Saina Maina (^ayana Mayana : 
the dream couch), 5 miles S.W. of Butwal may be Kapilavastu ? I 
think it may be near it at any rate, unless there were more than one 
sculptured or painted representations of the dream of Maya which gave 
to places their names. 
I omit for the present the places between the Lumbini Garden and 
Vaisali but shall return again to discuss them also. 
I have long entertained grave doubts as to the identity of Besarh 
and Vaisali. When Buddha left his home he visited Vaisali and he 
also consulted the teachers mentioned as Arada Kalama and Uruvilva 
Ka^yapa before he reached Gaya. The Ka9yapa here alluded to seems 
to have resided at the place known as Urwal on the East bank of the 
Son river, and as Uruvilva Ka9yapa is Ka9yapa of Uruvilva we may 
conceive Arada Kalama to be Kalama of Arada and Arada to be the 
modern Arrah. In that case, any one will see that Buddha would have 
been guilty of making a foolish out- of-the-way detour if he went across 
the Great Gandak to Besarh before going to Arrah, Urwal and Gaya. 
If, when he fled from his home, he went down country via Kasia and 
the Saran district, crossed the Ganges and proceeded to Arrah, then 
crossed the Son and took Urwal on his way to Gaya, we have a probable 
route and there is no ground for supposing that he did not take as direct 
a course as reasonable. These considerations led me to believe that 
Vaisali must be found in the Saran district, west of the Great Gandak 
and north of the Ganges. 
When Kama was proceeding from Ayodhya to Mithila with 
Vi9varaitra, he passed through certain places until they reached the 
banks of the Son, but this river they did not cross. They crossed the 
Ganges and when they had landed on the other side they beheld the 
city named Vi9ala, where they were entertained by the king Sumati. 
Vi9vamitra narrated the legendary history of the kingdom over which 
this king reigned. I need not quote it here, but I refer the curious to 
the XLV and following sections of the Balakanda of Valmiki’s 
Ramayana. There is much that is suggestive in connection with the 
stories told by Hwen Thsang and I think that the reference by Valmiki 
to pakra justifies the suggestion that Saran may possibly be pakra + 
aranya the forest of p’akra or Indra, 
We know that when Buddha left Magadha for the last time he 
went towards Vaisali. The gate by whicli he left Pataliputra was 
afterwards called the Gotama gate and the place where he erossed the 
Ganges was called thereafter the Gotama Ferry. The Gotama Ghat is 
