299 
1872.] A. M. Broadley — The Buddhistic Remains of Bilidr. 
over all India for twenty-eight years, and was succeeded by “ the pious and 
supernaturally wise Asoka,” who caused his own inauguration to he solemnized 
in the city of 1 Bdtaliputto.' Rajagriha, then, appears, to have continued to 
flourish for at least two hundred and eighteen years after the death of Bud- 
dha. It was then that the old seat of government was given up to the 
Brahmans as stated by Hwen Thsang, but Buddhism must have continued to 
flourish there ; for we read almost in the next page of one Sonsiko of Bana- 
ras coming to the “ mountain-girt city [Rajagriha] on trade, together with 
his parents, attended by a retinue of fifty-five brahmanical devotees , who had 
accompanied him thither.”* He repaired at once to the great Kalanda-Ve- 
nouvana monastery, and soon appears to have attained to sublime honour of 
the priesthood under the auspices of the thoro Dasako, and became the means 
of converting to the faith of Buddha, Tisso, younger brother of Asoka and 
‘ sub-king of Magadha.’ The great Dharmasoka himself soon after became 
“ a relation of the religion of Buddha.” 
In speaking of the number of Buddhist priests attracted to Ceylon 
during the reign of Duttagamani, the fourteenth in succession after the 
death of Buddha (B. C. 161 — 137), we find that one Indagutto, a sojourner 
in the vicinity of Rajagriha, came there, accompanied by 8000 theros. 
A still greater number came from Wesali, Banaras, Kausambi, and other 
places. We are thus in possession of the fact that Rajagriha continued 
to be one of the chief seats of Buddhism in India up to a comparatively 
short time before the birth of Christ. Nalanda is not even mentioned 
as one of the viharas contributing members to the Ceylon assembly, and 
this lends aid to my own belief of the comparatively recent date of its 
erection and prosperity. 
X.— Na'landa' [Barga'on], 
The village of Bargaon lies exactly six miles south-west of Bihar 
and seven miles north-east of Rajagriha. From the row of conical mounds 
to the south of the modern village, the “ solitary rock” of the former place, 
and the rugged mountains which once surrounded the ancient capital of 
Magadha, are distinctly visible, both objects presenting a break in the broad 
expanse of poppy-fields and rice-lands which meet the eye in all directions, 
and which gently slope from the foot of the Rajgir hills to the banks of the 
Ganges itself. 
By its position, by the comparison of distances, and by the aid of in- 
scriptions, Bargaon has been identified, beyond the possibility of a doubt, 
with that Viliara-gram on the outskirts of which, more than a thousand 
years ago, flourished the great Nalanda monastery, the most magnificent 
and most celebrated seat of Buddhist learning in the world. When the 
* Maliawanso, p. 29. 
