When Ānanda was going from Magadha to Vaiṡālī, wishing his Pari-nirvāṇa to take place there, king Ajāta-ṡatru heard of his intention, and set out with his retinue to follow him. The Liććhavis, too, when they heard that Ānanda was coming to their city, went out to meet him. In this way both parties arrived together at the river, and Ānanda, thinking to himself that he ought to please both, burnt his own body in the middle of the river, and thus attained Pari-nirvāṇa in a fiery ecstasy of Samādhi. Then his body was divided into two, so that each got one half as a sacred relic (Legge, pp. 75-77). _Kauṡāmbī._ Kauṡāmbī (in Pāli Kosāmbī), now Kosam[210], on the river Jumnā, about thirty miles from Allahābād, was once a place hallowed by many Brāhmanical associations, and is mentioned in the Rāmāyaṇa. It was the capital of the Kauṡāmba country, and is said to have been founded by Kuṡāmba, tenth in descent from Purūravas. Without doubt it was one of the most ancient cities of India. It was also the city of King Udayana, whose story is alluded to by the greatest of all Sanskrit poets, Kāli-dāsa, in his ‘Cloud-Messenger[211].’ Furthermore, Kauṡāmbī is the city in which the scene of the Sanskṛit drama Ratnāvalī was laid[212]. The Buddha resided there in the sixth and ninth years of his Buddhahood, and probably visited the place at other times. This was the chief cause of its reputation in connexion with Buddhism. But it also derived its sacred character from the fact that it contained the celebrated sandal-wood image[213] of the Buddha, believed to have been carved during his life-time, by a sculptor sent by Moggallāna (see last line, p. 414) at King Udayana’s request, to the Trayastriṉṡa heaven, when the Buddha was there preaching the Law to his mother (see p. 207). In a village near at hand Sir A. Cunningham (i. 308) found two sculptured pillars, and the pedestal of a statue inscribed with the ‘Ye dharmā’ formula (see p. 104). A great monolith was also discovered there. In Fā-hien’s time a Vihāra existed at the spot where the Buddha had explained the Law (Legge, p. 96). Hiouen Thsang mentions that a lofty Stūpa, 200 feet high, was erected by Aṡoka near at hand. There was also a cavern in which the Buddha had left his shadow impressed on the rock. He also speaks of ten monasteries all in ruins. _Nālanda._