1900.] W. Hoey — Identification of Kusinara, Vaisali, ^■e. HI 
a river bearing a name suggestive of gold, he reached the people’s 
park near Kusinara and lay down under some sal trees. Possibly he 
had not come to Kusinara because he sent Ananda to bring the Mallas 
to him. After his death there was an imposing ceremony to do honour 
to his remains. He was laid out on a golden bier and is said to have 
been kept for seven days : and it is said that he showed his feet from 
out his winding sheet and he even raised himself and spoke. There was 
difficulty in moving his remains until Ka^yapa came. Thus the spot 
where his bier rested was one that must have borne a name associated 
with it. That name is Sewan, the Sanscrit pavayana : a litter or bier. 
There is something in names. It is remarkable that we have a particular 
tree of great age at a mound near Sewan Railway Station. This is 
known as Jagattra, the Protector or Deliverer of the world. One would 
expect Hindus to venerate this spot but they do not. They consider it 
ill-omened. The late Raja of Hathwa desired to enclose all this spot, 
but the Pandits told him that the act would bring him bad luck. He 
enclosed a large patch but left the tree outside the walls. He died soon 
after. This Jagattra is looked upon as the oldest place about Sewan, 
and its name and associations are significant. There is also a very high 
mound not far off which has not been explored. I can have no doubt 
that Kusinara lies somewhere close to Sewan if it be not Sewan itself. 
The indefatigable Major Waddell has in the third number of the 
Journal of this Society for 1896, published an abstract of a Tibetan 
Guide Book to Buddhist sites in India. It is unfortunately a brief and 
vague vade mecum for the traveller and is absolutely unreliable in some 
of the directions which it gives, but it tells us that the Bala grove 
where Buddha died is in the H.W. of the Kamalla or Baliya des, ‘ the 
powerful country.’ I find that the tract of country eastward from the 
D.iha river near Sewan and stretching north of the Manjhi and Cherand 
tappas or parganas is called Ball. Sewan is in the N.W. of the Ball 
country. This is probably the country of the ‘powerful’ people (bala) 
and is possibly the same as malla (powerful, athletic). When Buddha 
left Vaisali and visited various places before reaching Pava the places 
are said to have been villages of the Licchavis and the Mallas. 
Hwen Thsang tells us two Jataka stories in connection with the 
country of Kusinara. The one is that of the pheasant which tried to 
extinguish a forest fire by dipping in water, flying aloft, and shaking its 
wings that the water might fall on the fire : but the bird’s efforts were 
unavailing and at last fakra (Indra) put out the fire. This is not a 
misplaced story in Sewan, the ^akra-aranya. The second story is that of 
the deer which, when the forest was burning, helped animals across the 
river and last of all saved a helpless hare, and itself perished. How, 
J. I, 11 
