Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/187

 — BAH middle of the river face was 10 earthen ramparts, according to

109

The whole

feet thick.

my

survey,

is

17,300

circuit of the

feet,

or

old

upwards of

3i miles." There are the ruins of another

city of smaller dimensions, but of almost exactly similar character, at Charda in the Charda The Charda fortress- pargana in this district, about 40 miles to the north^_ west of Sahet Mahet, and there cannot be a doubt but that it dates from the same age as that larger and better kntjwn fortress-city. It probably formed one of that chain of fastnesses which are to be found lying along the foot of the Himalayan range, and agreeing with this view is the derivation assigned by the natives to its name,_ it being they say, the fourteenth " chaudah" of this system of forts.

Section

II.

Buddhist Period.

however, not until the time of Sakya Buddha, viz., the sixth century B. C, that anything approaching historical '"'^" Uttar^^''°^^ ^^ attainable regarding this district. cuL^rBuddhism^^ Kosala may without any presumption claim to have been the cradle of Buddhism. It was at Kapilanagara (now Nagar near Basti), the country of the Sakyas, that Buddha was born, and it was at Sravasti that he passed nineteen years of his life in retirement and preparation for Nirvana. King Prasenajit, son of Maha Kosala, then reigned in Sravasti (570 B. G.,) and together with his minister Sudatta became a convert to the new faith. It is not then to be wondered at that the city should be crowded with buildings erected during Buddha's lifetime, and subsequently for the propagation of the creed and in honour of It

its

is,

prophet.

We find

accordingly from the account of

Fa Hian,

the Chinese pilgrim

who

account of ' VaS^'"'^ S ^^^^^

visited this city in search of relics and Buddhist -^^^^^^ in 410 D., and who has left a most interesting description of his travels, that the fortress (then

A

abounded in the remains of monastic buildings (viharas), memoshrines, &c., all connected with the rise and propagation of These relics which are described with some minuteness by Buddhism. Fa Hian, who also gives the legends connected with them, have most of them been identified by General Cunningham and detailed in his archae-

in riiins)

rial pillars,

ological report (Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, Part

I,

No. IV, 1865).

describes the city at the time of his visit 410 A. D., as containing only about 200 families, as the Ceylonese annals The decHne of Bud- g ]j. ^f ^^g Khir^dhara as king of Swatthipura hism and of Sravasti. ^^^ Srdvasti) between A. D. 275 and A. D. 302. General Cunningham concludes that the decline of the city must have taken place during the fourth century, and that it was probably connected

Fa Hian

with the

fall

of the

Gupta dynasty.

Other Buddhist remains have been identified at Tandwa, a village about 9 miles to the west of Sahet Mahet, and in this Other Buddhist revillage to this day the Hindus worship under the nxains.