History
Kosambi was one of the greatest cities in India from the late Vedic period till the end of Maurya empire with occupation continuing till the Gupta empire. As a small town, it was established in the late Vedic period. During the Sunga period, it was the capital of the Vatsa which was a vassal state of the Sungas. After the decline of the Sungas, Vatsa (Kausambi is itself the fomal name associated with recovered coinage) became an independent kingdom (also: Vamsas), one of the Mahajanapadas (Great Kingdoms) of ancient India. Kausambi was a very prosperous city by the time of Buddha, where a large number of wealthy merchants resided. It was an important entreport of goods and passengers from north-west and south. It figures very prominently in the accounts of the life of Buddha. The excavations of the archaeological site of Kausambi was done by the late Prof. G.R.Sharma of the Allahabad University in 1949 and again in 1951-1956 after it was authorized by Sir. Mortimer on March, 1948. Carbon dating of charcoal and Northern Black Polished Ware have historically dated its continued occupation from 390 BC to 600 A.D.
Kosambi was a fortified town with an irregular oblong plan. Excavations of the ruins revealed the existence of gates on three sides-east, west and north. The location of the southern gate can not be precisely determined due to water erosion. Besides the bastions, gates and sub-gates, the city was encircled on three sides by a moat, which, though filled up at places, it still discernible on the northern side. At some points, however, there is evidence of more than one moat. The city extended to an area of approximately 6.5 KM. The city shows a large extent of brickworks indicating the density of structures in the city.
The Buddhist Commentarial scriptures give two reasons for the name Kausambi/Kosambī. The more favoured is that the city was so called because it was founded in or near the site of the hermitage once occupied by the sage Kusumba (v.l. Kusumbha). Another explanation is that large and stately margosa-trees (Kosammarukkhā) grew in great numbers in and around the city.
Read more about this topic: Kosambi
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.... It is not “history” which uses men as a means of achieving—as if it were an individual person—its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“America is the only nation in history which, miraculously, has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.”
—Attributed to Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929)