Conclusion

The ancient city of Kaushambi was the capital of the Vatsa janapada which was counted among the sixteen mahajanapadas of northern India in the time of the Buddha. In the sixth century B.C. king Udayana was the ruler of Vatsa. His life and romances furnished material for many authors and artists. For a long period Kaushambi was one of the nerve-centres in the political, religious and economic life of ancient India.

Kaushambi is mentioned in the later Vedic literature as the capital of the Vatsas. It is also referred to in the Atareya Brahmana, the Gopatha Brahamana, the Kaushitaki Upanishad, the Puranas, the Pali canons and in the two great epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.^[1]

According to the legendary accounts about a century after the Mahabharata War, Hastinapur was swept away by a flood in the Ganga. Nichakshu, the fifth king in the Pandava lineage shifted to Kaushambi.

In 1871. A. Cunningham identified the present village of Kosam with the ancient city of Kaushambi on the basis of the Pali literature and the itinerary of the Chinese Pilgrim Hiuen-Tsang. The evidence on which he based his conclusion was partly traditional and partly argumentative.

Vincent Smith on the other hand, pointed out the location of Kaushambi near Satna^[2] in M.P. Watters identified it with Sravasti^[3].

The recent explorations have proved the correctness of Cunningham's identification and have set the controversy at rest. References to Kaushambi are found in various epigraphs found at Kosam and other places.

An Ashokan Pillar is standing in situ at Kosam. A Brahmi inscription is engraved on the upper part of the shaft.^[4] It mentions the name 'Koshambi'. The most important part of the inscription which identifies Kosam with Koshambi is the records and the prayers of the five leading goldsmiths with thirteen of their employess to 'Ganesa and Siva-Bhairava' for favour of goldsmiths of Kaushambi town. This proves that Kosam which contains the stone pillar referred to above and the inscription which was engraved in the reign of Akbar was known to its residents to be Kaushambi even in the sixth century A.D.

Another inscription on the Pabhosa hill dated Samvat 1889 (1832. A.D.) speaks of Pabhosa as situated out-side the city of Kaushambi.^[5] Thus half a century before Cunninghans' identification, Kaushambi was known by its ancient name.

An inscription mentioning Kaushambi was found at Kara, 41 miles from Allahabad on a piece of stone fixed on the gateway of its fort. It is dated in Samvat 1092 (A.D. 1035) and mentions the Pratihara ruler Yasahpala.

The Ghoshitarama Buddhist monastery of Kaushambi is frequently mentioned in the early Buddhist literature: It was built by Ghosita, one of the leading bankers of Kaushambi to provide lodging for the Buddha and his followers. Some of the famous sermons of Buddha, such as Kosambyi-Sutta and the Jaliya Sutta, were preached while he was staying at Ghoshitarama. The tradition avers that the first schism in the Buddhist Sangha also arose while the master was present there.

As presented in the above chapters, we may mention some of the important points as follows:

This theses is general study of "A Historical Study of Kausambi: Archaeological and Literary Perspective" it is developed around the central question of whether Buddhist sites is correctly chracterized as a form of new development doctrines of Buddhism or not. This core research of Kausambi is basically on the literary and archeological perspective.

When Fa-Hien visited Kaushambi in the 5^th century A.D., the Ghositarama was not only in existence but tenanted by Buddhist priests, "mostly of the Lesser Vehicle."^[6] When Hiuen Tsang visited the place in the 7^th century A.D., during the reign of King Harshavardhana of Kanauj, there were more than ten Samgharamas, all of which were in utter ruin, and "the Brethren, who were above 300 in number, were adherents of the Hinayana system. There were more than 50 deva temples and the non-Buddhists were very numerous."^[7] Out of the ten monasteries, one was the famous Ghositarama situated to the south-east of Kaushambi. Kukkutarama was probably another monastery which stood to the south-east of the Ghositarama and in which Vasubandhu once lived and composed the Wei-shi-hen (Vidyamatra-siddhi) "for the refuting of the Hinayamists and the confounding of non-Buddhists." The third monastery which stood to the east of the Ghositarama was Pavariya's Mango-grove in which Vasubandhu's elder brother, the Bodhisattva Asanga, composed the Hsien-Yang-sheng-chiaolun, which seems to have been "an exposition and development of the Yogacharyabhumi-Sastra."^[8]

A carved sandal woo image of the Budha was installed with a stone canopy suspended over it in the large Buddhist temple, built over 60 feet high within the old royal enclosure. At this part of the old capital were certain memorials of the four past Buddhas as well as of Buddha Gautama. King Ashoka had built near Ghositarama a stupa above 200 feet high.

In the inscription of the goldsmiths of Kaushambi dated Samvat 1621 (1565 A.D.), we find that six of them call themselves Vaishnavas, although the record itself contains only the prayers of five leading goldsmiths and of thirteen of their employees to Ganesa and the god Bhairava "for favour."

The Chinese pilgrim is silent about the political condition of Kaushambi during his visit to the city. The Vatsa janapada formed part of the kingdom of Harsavardhana.

The famous Ghositarama monastry, which was in good condition during the visit of Fa-hien in the beginning of the 5th century A.D. was found in ruins by Hiuen Tsang. About a century after the visit of Fa-hien, the Hunas may have caused destruction to the flourishing town of Kaushambi.

Hiuen-Tsang found the Buddhist monastries at Kaushambi in a devastated condition. He saw ten such monasteries,^[9] in which were living three hundred brethern all followers of the Hinayana system.^[10] A Buddhist temple existed in his time "within the royal enclosure of the capital" says the pilgrim was a large Buddhist temple over sixty feet high in which was a carved sandal wood Image of the Buddha with a stone canopy suspended over it.^[11] This image, according to Hiuen-Tsang, was the one made at the request of Udayana.^[12] According to Watters the same image was taken to Khatan or probably to China. The ruins of the house of the wealthy and pious Buddhist banker Ghosita, the doner of the Ghositarama, seen by the pilgrim who located the house in the south-east corner of the city. It is interesting to note that the south-east corner of the present site of Kaushambi is exactly on the river Yamuna which flows along its Southern side as revealed by present excavations. Ghosita being a premier merchant of Kaushambi, his residence should have been on the river bank. The pilgrim also saw a Buddhist temple, a hair and nailrelic tope and the remains of the Buddha's bath-house. The temple referred to here is different from the one built at the request of king. Udayana. The recent excavations have shown that the Ghositarama monastery was built outside the city and on the river bank for the convenience of the pilgrims and monks.

Vasubandhu belonged to the realistic school of Buddhism and was a great authority on Mahayana as well as Hinayana philosophy. He is famous as a great exponent of Mahayana doctrines.

Asanga, according the pilgrim also lived in Kaushambi and composed there the Hsieh-Yang Shengchiao-lun. His notable contribution to the intellectual movements of the age was the systematisation of the idealistic philosophy, which afterwards produced such great logicians as Dinnaga and Dharmakirti.

We may conclude on the basis of the account furnished by Hiuen-Tsang that Kaushambi was an important religious and cultural centre during the first half of the seventh century A.D.

Fa-hien's notice of the city of Kaushambi in his record is brief; that of Hiuen Tsang is in fuller detail. Both of them are silent about the political condition of Kaushambi during their visits. But that is partly because Kaushambi was during their visits under the imperial rule of the Guptas and of Harsavardhana, respectively, and there was no independent or subordinate king residing in the city whose guests they were; and partly because of the fact that the two travellers came to India primarily as pious pilgrims to pay respects to the Buddhist shrines and to collect and carry home copies of the Pali Pitakas, if they could find any. Consequently their notice of Kaushambi, in common with that of many other places, was confined to the religious conditions obtaining there at the time. The record of the pilgrims regarding Kaushambi, however, clearly point out one thing, namely, that it was once an important scene of Buddhist activity, and was still a centre of Hinayana Buddhism. Fa-hien says: "Thirteen yojans^[13] to the northwest of the shrine (Deer Park, Benares) is a country called Kaushambi. There is a shrine there, known as the garden of Ghochirarama, in which Buddha once dwelt, and where there are still priests, mostly of the lesser vehicle."^[14] Ghochirarama is the Ghositarama or GhosiKarama of Hiuen Tsang and Buddhaghosha, a pleasance and vihara built by the pious and wealthy Buddhist merchant Ghosita or Ghosika. Evidently the Ghositarama was in good condition in the fifth century A.D. when Fa-hien visited Kaushambi. It was however reduced to ruins when Hiuen Tsang visited the place in the seventh century A.D. This may be accounted for the fact that the Hunas who poured into India in the latter part of the fifth century A.D. carried on a systematic ravage of the country and destruction of buildings, the Saiva Temples and Buddhist Monasteries coming equally under their vandalic lust.

During the recent excavations at Kaushambi the remains of a fortress-palace made of stone have been discovered. The area of this palace has been found 1,015 ft x 500 ft in the southern-western corner of the ancient city. The northern boundary wall is built of stones set in lime of fine quality. It has two circular tower's at the two ends and rectangular one in the middle. Traces of a ditch (about 15 ft wide, and 15ft deep) encircling the fortress, have also been found.^[15]

The stone wall and the ancillary structures had ten building -periods, ranging from c. 700 B.C. to the first-second centuries A.D. The stratigraphic evidence reveals that the palace was occupied by king Udayana and his predecessors. Later on the successors of Udayana also occupied it. The present discovery has thrown fresh light on the origin of Indian architecture, in so far as it has proved beyond doubt that masonary architecture in India was evolved independently of the Persian or Indo-Greek influence.

The excavations have also revealed three main phases of architectural evolution in the buildings of the palace area The earliest phase of the palace was built entirely of rand un-rubbles, huge stones being laid in time. These stones were not dressed, but the sides of the walls were possibly plastered. The foundations of the undressed phase of the palace were laid in the pre-Northern Black Polished ware levels. An accumulation of nearly 2 ft. against this wall 1s found to be anti dating northern black polished ware on the site. It has yielded Painted Grey ware plain Grey ware and red ware with types analogous to those from Hastinapur. The second phase of the palace, which came into being immediately after the introduction of the Northern black polished ware, marks the apogee of architectural excellence. During this period the neatly dressed stones were used to provide the facings of both the sides on the wall and the masonry is entirely ashlar. In the construction of a later structural period of this phase flush pointing was also introduced which is clearly represented in the central rectangular tower.

The excavations have also revealed the town planning of the period under review. Several structures of houses made of bricks have been exposed. An idea of the temples of Brahmanical divinities has also been obtained.

But, some of the early scholars of Buddhism were concerned primarily with early Buddhist literary and Archeological sources of Kausambi therefore the Buddhist sites had played in the creation as a result identity; the Vinaya Pitika oriented devotional practice in both monastic and lay cultural spheres. But on the other hand Buddhist sites is seemingly incompatible Buddhism as a rational Archeological. For the society, sharing whatever one has is necessity for social life at all times because "all living beings depend on food. If they don't eat, they cannot maintain their life in Kausambi.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

B.C.Lew: Historical Geography of ancient India,ch.I,p.99; N.N. Ghosh: Early History of Kaushambi,pp. 93-97; A, Cunningham: The Ancient Geography of India, p. 454.

[2]:

J.R.A.S., 1898, p. 503.

[3]:

Watters on Yuan Chwang, p. 367-68.

[4]:

Hultzsch, C.I.I.,Vol. I, Ashokan Ins.,p. 20.; v'kksd ds vfHkys[k] p. 187.

[5]:

Ep. Ind., Vol. X,p. 32.

[6]:

Legee, Travels of Fa-Hien, page 96

[7]:

Watters, Yuan Chwang, I, page 366

[8]:

Ibid., page 370-371

[9]:

Watters, II; p. 366

[10]:

Ibid. 367

[11]:

Ibid, p. 368.

[12]:

Ibid, p. 369.

[13]:

One yojan is to be considered equal to eight British miles.

[14]:

Giles–Travels of Fa-Hien

[15]:

Allahabad Through the ages, pp. 18, (Report).