83 
1900.] W. Hoey — Identification of Kusinara, Vaisali, 
sliould be examined as a possible Stupa cum Vihara site. After the 
Ramagama stupa, the pilgrims visited the place where Buddha per- 
formed the three great acts of renunciation, where (1) he sent back 
his horse, (2) he took off his crest-jewel and cut his hair, and (3) he put 
on the Jcasaya robe of the ascetic. We know from the Lalita Vistara 
and the Romantic Legend that the memorial stupas erected to mark the 
place where these three acts were performed were close together. We 
also know that on his flight from home the Prince came to the country 
of the Mainas. Kasia lies on the Mainpur tappa, and I believe that the 
Prince crossed the Chota Gandak in the morning after he left home, and 
that a black stone image still lying under a tree opposite Hetimpur is 
a remnant of some memorial there placed to mark the spot where he 
crossed. The Prince then entered the country of the Mainas, as I have 
shown above, and the remains at Mata Kunwar, at Ramabhar, and 
inside the cane-brake in Kasia town, are what we have left of the memo- 
rial buildings placed to commemorate the Great Renunciation. Kasia 
is the place where the Prince received the hasaya garment or robe of 
the mendicant. 
The Charcoal stupa has yet to be found but I am in hopes that it 
will be identifiable in the mound of Agarwa, N. E. of Taria Sujan which 
I have not yet seen. The name itself being obviously derivable from 
a^garika, charcoal or embers, is promising. 
Having located Vaisali at Cherand, I may Rsk : ‘ What then is 
Besarh?’ Fortunately that is easily explained. When H wen Thsang 
speaks of the country Fo-li-shi, north east of Vaisali, he means Pa-la-sa 
or Parasa,^ the country of the dak tree, a name which was given to at 
least the trans-Ganges part of Magadha. He tells us an exaggerated 
story about a monster fish in this country and a stupa commemorating 
the conversion of 500 fishermen by Buddha. Besarh is the Sanskrit 
word vasadJiya, the Gangetic porpoise, and the remains at Besarh are 
those of the town or city of the Monster Fish. 
The mere fact that an Asoka pillar may be found somewhere near 
Besarh does not make it Vaisali : nor are we entitled to say that 
Cherand is not Vaisali, because an Asoka pillar has not yet come to 
sight there. It would be interesting to know why Asoka placed his 
pillars in many places which he selected. I would suggest that he 
selected Kesaria and Araraj as pillar sites because they probably re- 
present the places where Buddha was believed to have been in former 
lives respectively a Kesari or lion and the Arindama Raja. 
Let me now return to Kanauj and take up Hwen Thsang’s route. 
I assume that he visited Newal and we have to look for ’0-yu-t’o and 
1 The country of the noa(rioi mentioned by Megasthenes. 
