destroy the tower, and I shall not prevent thee." Now according to the Ceylonese chronicler, this is the very same argument that was used by the Nâga king to dissuade the priest Sonuttaro from removing the relics to Ceylon.* I infer, therefore, that the original "tank" of Râmagrâma was adroitly changed into a river by the Ceylonese author, so that the relics which were in charge of the Nâgas of the tank, might be conveyed to the ocean-palace of the Nâga king, from whence they could as readily be transferred to Ceylon as to any other place. The river was thus a necessity in the Ceylonese legend, to convey the relics away from Râmagrâma to the ocean. But the authority of a legend can have no weight against the united testimony of the two independent pilgrims, who many centuries later found the stupa still standing, but saw no river. I therefore dismiss the Ganges as a fabrication of the Ceylonese chroniclers, and accept in its stead the Nâga tank of the Chinese pilgrims. Having thus got rid of the river, I can see no objection to the identification of Deokali with the Râmagrâma of Buddhist history. The town was quite deserted at the time of Fa-Hian's visit, in the fifth century, who found only a small religious establishment; this was still kept up in the middle of the seventh century, but it must have been very near its dissolution, as there was only a single srámanera, or monk, to conduct the affairs of the monastery. River Anoma. The river Anoma was famous in the history of Buddhism as the scene of Prince Siddhârta's assumption of the dress of an ascetic, where he cut off his hair, and dismissed his attendant and his horse. According to the Burmese* and Ceyloneset chronicles, the distance from Kapila was 30 yojanas, or about 210 miles,— a mistake which must have originated in an erroneous opinion that the river was exactly halfway between Kapila and Rajagriha, as the total distance is said to be 60 yojanas. In the Tibetan translation of the Lalita Vistára, the distance is stated at 6 yojanas, or 42 miles. This is somewhat less than the estimates of Fa-Hian and Hwen Thsang, but as the former is made up of two distances, given in whole yojanas, and the latter of two distances, given in round hundreds of li, they can only be accepted as approximations. Thus Fa-Hian's 5 yojanas, plus 3 yojanas, may have been only 4 and 2 yojanas, and Hwen Thsang's 200 li, plus 100 li, may have been actually only 180 li, plus 80 li. The former may thus be reduced to 7 yojanas, or 49 miles, and the latter to 260 li, or 43 miles. I therefore accept the 6 yojanas, or 42 miles, of the Lalita Vistára as the nearest approach to the real distance that could be stated in whole yojanas. When Prince Siddharta left Kapila to enter upon the life of an ascetic, he took the road by Vaisâli to Rajagriha. The general direction of his route was therefore nearly east-south-east past Deokali to the bank of the Aumi river below Sangrâmpur, and above the point where it enters the Aumiyar Lake.§ As the * Bigandet, Legend of the Burmese Buddha,' p. 41. + Turnour, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vii. 809. Hardy, 'Manual of Buddhism,' p. 160, says 480 miles, from which it is evident that he has adopted Turnour's erroneous valuation of the yojana at 16 miles. Foucaux, French translation, p. 214. § Eastern India,' ii. 314. Buchanan calls it the Nawar Lake, but destroy the tower, and I shall not prevent thee." Now according to the Ceylonese chronicler, this is the very same argument that was used by the Nâga king to dissuade the priest Sonuttaro from removing the relics to Ceylon.* I infer, therefore, that the original "tank" of Râmagrâma was adroitly changed into a river by the Ceylonese author, so that the relics which were in charge of the Nâgas of the tank, might be conveyed to the ocean-palace of the Nâga king, from whence they could as readily be transferred to Ceylon as to any other place. The river was thus a necessity in the Ceylonese legend, to convey the relics away from Râmagrâma to the ocean. But the authority of a legend can have no weight against the united testimony of the two independent pilgrims, who many centuries later found the stupa still standing, but saw no river. I therefore dismiss the Ganges as a fabrication of the Ceylonese chroniclers, and accept in its stead the Nâga tank of the Chinese pilgrims. Having thus got rid of the river, I can see no objection to the identification of Deokali with the Râmagrâma of Buddhist history. The town was quite deserted at the time of Fa-Hian's visit, in the fifth century, who found only a small religious establishment; this was still kept up in the middle of the seventh century, but it must have been very near its dissolution, as there was only a single srámanera, or monk, to conduct the affairs of the monastery. River Anoma. The river Anoma was famous in the history of Buddhism as the scene of Prince Siddhârta's assumption ** Mahawanso,' c. xxxi. p. 188. of the dress of an ascetic, where he cut off his hair, and dismissed his attendant and his horse. According to the Burmese* and Ceyloneset chronicles, the distance from Kapila was 30 yojanas, or about 210 miles, a mistake which must have originated in an erroneous opinion that the river was exactly halfway between Kapila and Rajagriha, as the total distance is said to be 60 yojanas. In the Tibetan translation of the Lalita Vistára, the distance is stated at 6 yojanas, or 42 miles. This is somewhat less than the estimates of Fa-Hian and Hwen Thsang, but as the former is made up of two distances, given in whole yojanas, and the latter of two distances, given in round hundreds of li, they can only be accepted as approximations. Thus Fa-Hian's 5 yojanas, plus 3 yojanas, may have been only 4 and 2 yojanas, and Hwen Thsang's 200 li, plus 100 li, may have been actually only 180 li, plus 80 li. The former may thus be reduced to 7 yojanas, or 49 miles, and the latter to 260 li, or 43 miles. I therefore accept the 6 yojanas, or 42 miles, of the Lalita Vistára as the nearest approach to the real distance that could be stated in whole yojanas. When Prince Siddhârta left Kapila to enter upon the life of an ascetic, he took the road by Vaisâli to Rajagriha. The general direction of his route was therefore nearly east-south-cast past Deokali to the bank of the Aumi river below Sangrâmpur, and above the point where it enters the Aumiyar Lake.§ As the * Bigandet, Legend of the Burmese Buddha,' p. 41. Turnour, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vii. 809. Hardy, 'Manual of Buddhism,' p. 160, says 480 miles, from which it is evident that he has adopted Turnour's erroneous valuation of the yojana at 16 miles. Foucaux, French translation, p. 214. § Eastern India,' ii. 314. Buchanan calls it the Nawar Lake, but will there be any Anoma (inferiority) in my ordination,' he pressed his heel to the horse and gave him the signal to leap." Turnour notes that "this remark involves a pun;" but that a pun "is by no means a matter of levity in Buddhistical literature." By some oversight, Turnour has rendered anoma by "inferiority," whereas its meaning is exactly the reverse, and is correctly given by Hardy and Bishop Bigandet. According to the text of the Burmese and Ceylonese chronicles, it would appear that the name of the river was Anoma, the "not inferior," that is the superior," and the prince's remark must have been that so also would his ordination be anoma, or "superior." But as the name of the river at the present day is Aumi, or "inferior," and as Turnour's translation of the word as "inferiority" would seem to show that in his copy at least the name was Oma or Auma, I cannot help suspecting that this is the true reading; and that when the prince was informed that the name of the river was Auma, or "inferior," he remarked "My ordination shall be anauma, or "superior." If the original name of the stream had been Anoma, it is difficult to understand how it could have been changed to Aumi, which has the very opposite meaning. But if it was properly Aumi, that is the "inferior" or lesser branch of the Rapti, and it was arbitrarily changed by the Buddhists to Anauma, a return to the use of the original name would have been only a natural consequence of the downfall of Buddhism. But the identification of the Buddhistical Anoma with the modern Aumi is still further confirmed by the existence of three significant names on the eastern bank of the river, within a short distance of the point |