busy men, this will become the chief, the city of Pâtaliputta, a centre for interchange of all kinds of wares. But there will happen three disasters to Pâtaliputta, one of fire, and one of water, and one of dissension[1].'
But it is, to say the least, improbable that the conjecture would have been recorded until after the event had proved it to be accurate: and it would scarcely be too hazardous to maintain that the tradition of the guess having been made would not have arisen at all until after the event had occurred.
What was the event referred to may also be questioned, as the words quoted do not, in terms, declare that the city would become the actual capital. But we know, not only from Buddhist, but from Greek historians, that it did, and this is most probably the origin of the prophecy.
Now the Mâlâlaṅkâravatthu, a Pâli work of modern date, but following very closely the more ancient books, has been" translated, through the Burmese, by Bishop Bigandet; and it says,
'That monarch [Susunâga], not unmindful of his mother's origin, re-established the city of Vesâlî, and fixed in it the royal residence. From that time Râgagaha lost her rank of royal city, which she never afterwards recovered. He died in 8i' [that is, of the Buddhist era reckoned from the Great Decease][2]….
Relying on similar authority Bishop Bigandet afterwards himself says:
'King Kâlâsoka left Râgagaha, and removed the seat of his empire to Palibothra [the Greek name for Pâtaliputta], near the place where the modern city of Patna stands[3].'
- ↑ See below, Chap. I, § 28. I have translated Putabhedanam, 'a centre for the interchange of all kinds of wares,' in accordance with the commentary, which is clearly based on a derivation from puta, 'a bag or bundle.' But I see that Trenckner in his Pâli Miscellany renders nânâputabhedanam by 'surrounded by a number of dependent towns.'
At the end the text has 'from fire o r from water or from dissension;' on which Buddhaghosa says that or stands here for and; and the comment is correct enough, not of course philologically, but exegetically. But in either case the last clause is of very little importance for the present argument.
- ↑ Bigandet's 'Legend of the Burmese Budha,' third edition, vol. ii. pp. 115, 183. I have altered the spelling only of the proper names.
- ↑ Bigandet's 'Legend of the Burmese Budha,' third edition, vol. ii. pp. 115, 183. I have altered the spelling only of the proper names.
