89 
1903.] Nundolal Dey— Notes on Chirand in the District of Seiran. 
one part was taken by Ajatasatru, king of Magadha, and the other by 
the Licchavis of Yaisali, and the latter built a tower over half the body 
at a place called Kutagara, or, as it was called, Mahavana-Kutagara, 1 
the northern suburb of the town of Yaisali. This tower was visited by 
Fa Hian in the fifth century, 2 and by Hinen Tsiang in the seventh 
century. 8 
The etymology of Chirand and the aforesaid tradition of Mayura- 
dhvaja’s son being sawed down into two portions at this place, and the 
fact that it was the site of an ancient Buddhist town, point out that it was 
the place where the tower was built over half the body of Ananda. The 
word Chirand is composed of two words : Ghir and And. Ghir means a 
portion cut off, and And is a contraction or corruption of Ananda, and 
hence the word Chirand means a portion cut off from Ananda?s body. 
Chirand therefore may be identified with the ancient Kutagara or Maha¬ 
vana-Kutagara, the northern suburb of Yaisali. But the difficulty of 
such identification is apparent. Yaisali has been identified by General 
Cunningham with Basarh 4 on the left bank of the Gandak in the dis¬ 
trict of Muzaffarpur (Tirhut), though it should be observed that the 
river Gandak is not mentioned in connection with Yaisali either by Fa 
Hian or Hiuen Tsiang : the latter says that he crossed the Ganges in 
order to reach Yaisali from Drona-stupa which has been identified with 
Degwara. If Yaisali be Basarh, then certainly Chirand cannot be the 
northern suburb of Yaisali, as Chirand is situated about twenty-four 
miles to the south-west of Basarh. Mr. Carlleyle identifies the mounds 
of ancient ruins at Chirand with the Drona or Kumbha stupa which 
was said to have been built by the Brahman Drona over the vessel or 
humbha with which he divided the relics of Buddha into eight equal 
portions, each of which was equal to one drona in measure, and he sup¬ 
poses that Ghir of the word Chiran refers to the division of the remains 
of Buddha. 6 But there is much that is reasonable, at least worthy of the 
consideration of the archaeologist, in the argument advanced by Dr. 
Hoey in identifying Chirand with Yaisali, though it goes against the 
accepted identification of Yaisali with Basarh. There are big earthen 
1 Beal’s Travels of Fah Hian and Sung-yun, Chap. XXY, Bigandet’s Life of 
Gantama, Chap. XI, and Chullavagga, ch. v, sec. 13 and ch. x, sec. 1. The Pilgrimage 
of Fa Hian from the French edition of the Foe Eoue Ki [(1848) : “ Thence proceed¬ 
ing five yeou yan to the east, you come to the kingdom of Phi she li. Here are a 
great forest [ [Mahdvana] and a chapel of two stories [ [Kutagara ] ; it was one of the 
stations of Foe, and here you see the Tower of half of the body of Ananda .” 
2 Beal’s Fo-Kivo-Ki, Chapters XXV and XXYI. 
s Beal’s Records of Western Countries, Book VII. 
4 The Ancient Geography of India, page 443. 
5 Archaeological Report, Vol. XXII, p. 79. 
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