In search of Buddhism's "Middle Country"

Majjhimadesa (wisdomlib.org) and Wiki edited by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

The Majjhimadesa ("Middle Country") in Theravada Buddhism

G.P. Malasekera, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names (palikanon.com)

The big Buddha in Bamiyan, Afghanistan

The "country" (mahajanapada) of Central Asia (proto-India) that was the birthplace of the historical Buddha (Shakyamuni, Sakamuni, Scythiamuni), Buddhism, and the region of its early activities.

[According to Theravada, this is how it was delineated:] It extended in the east to the town of Kajangala, beyond which was Mahasala; on the southeast to the river Salalavati; on the southwest to the town of Satakannika; on the west to the Brahmin village of Thuna; on the north to the Usiraddhaja Mountain.

Some sources (Vin.i.197; J.i.49, 80; Mbv.12; Dvy.21f) extended the eastern boundary to include Pundavardhana, roughly identical with North Bengal.

It is interesting to note that in early Brahminical literature (e.g., the Dharmasutra of Baudhayana), Aryavarta [Aryan Land], which is practically identical with what came to be called Madhyadesa, is described as lying to the east of the region where the Sarasvati River disappears, to the west of the Kalakavana, to the north of Paripatra, and to the south of the Himalaya. This excludes the whole of Magadha (Baudhayana i. 1, 2, 9, etc.) [where Prince Siddhartha moved to become "the Buddha"].

Scythian devotees surround the Buddha, who was a former royal Scythian

Wisdom Quarterly joins Brock and Afghan community in Westwood, CA, at Federal Building on Wilshire Bl. near UCLA in a demonstration to "Save Mes Aynak," the greatest unexcavated Buddhist temple complex in the world, threatened by US war and Chinese exploitation (WQ, 2011).

• [It is possible that the "Middle Country," the place where a being is born before becoming a buddha, is actually Middle Earth or Hollow Earth, subterranean planes inside the planet. It is said to be accessible through an opening under Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet, and each of the poles, which are openings hidden from those on the surface. See Wisdom Quarterly's extensive hollow earth coverage, which in longstanding Indian belief is called Agartha. It was explored by Nazis who built New Schwabenland, Antarctica, near Argentina in South America. A few Western scientists, like our neighbor Dr. Brooks Agnew, also dare to explore.]

Restoring Afghanistan's big Buddha, Bamiyan

It is also noteworthy that in the Commentaries, the Majjhimadesa is extended to include the whole of Jambudipa [the "Roseapple Land" or continent, the subcontinent, this part of the world bounded by a wall of mountains all around, the earth as an "island" or "light/lamp" in space], the other continents being Paccantima janapada.

The term came also to be used in a generic sense. Thus, in Sri Lanka (the Island of Ceylon, earlier Tambapanni-dipa) Anuradhapura came to be called the Majjhimadesa (AA.i.165).

The Majjhimadesa was 300 yojanas (one yojana being approximately seven miles or the distance a yoke ox can pull before needing to be unhitched) in length, 250 yojanas in breadth, and 900 in circumference (DA.i.173).

It contained 14 of the 16 mahajanapadas (territories, footholds of extended family clans, "countries"), that is to say, all but Gandhara and Kamboja, which belonged to the Uttarapatha.

The beauty of Central Asian Scythians in the Middle Country between East and West

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The people of Majjhimadesa were regarded as wise and virtuous (J.iii.115, 116). It was the birthplace of noble men (purisajaniya).

• ["Nobles" are construed in Indian and Hindu thinking as members of the kshatriya caste, but in Buddhism it refers to the NOBLE ONES (Ariya) who have attained one or more stages of enlightenment/liberation].

These nobles (Arya) include the buddhas (DhA.iii.248; AA.i.265). All kinds of marvelous things happened there (SNA.i.197). The people of Majjhimadesa considered peacock flesh a luxury (VibhA.10).

Indian history and geography

Source: Ancient Buddhist Texts: Geography of Early Buddhism (quoted in wisdomlib.org)

Eastern Hemisphere with Scythia, Sakastan, and the land of the Sakae circled (wikimedia.org)

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A gold vessel for the Buddha's relics

Majjhimadesa ("Middle Country") or Madhyadeśa refers to a district of ancient India (called Great Bharat or the proto-India Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa before there was an actual "India," which only came into being long after the Buddha with Buddhist Emperor Ashoka's conquests uniting republics and kingdoms of the subcontinent into a single "country"], as recorded in the Pāli Buddhist texts (detailing the geography of ancient India as it was known to Early Buddhism).

The boundaries of Majjhimadesa (Madhyadeśa) or the "Middle Country" have been referred to and explained in both Brahmanical [the Vedic religion of the Brahmin temple priests that preceded Hinduism] and Buddhist literature of an early date.

Bimaran soapstone casket for gold reliquary

Thus, as early as the age of the sūtras ("discourses"), we find, in the Dharmasūtra of Baudhāyana, Āryāvarta or the "Country of the Aryans" (which is practically identical with the country later known as Madhyadeśa) described as lying

• to the east of the region where the river Saraswatī disappears,
• to the west of the Kalakavana or "Black Forest" (identified with a tract somewhere near Prayāga)
• to the north of Pāripātra and
• to the south of the Himalayas.

The Majjhimadesa was 300 yojanas in length, 250 yojanas in breadth, and 900 yojanas in circuit.

It is interesting to place side by side the extent of the entire Jambudīpa ["Roseapple Land"], of which Majjhimadesa was only a part. Jambudīpa, according to the Sumaṅgalavilāsinī (II, p. 623), was 10,000 yojanas in extent, whereas Aparagoyāna was 7,000 yojanas.

Of the 16 mahājanapadas or "great territories" that existed in India during the days of the Buddha, as many as 14 may be said to have been included in the Majjhimadesa. They are:

1. Kāsī,
2. Kosala,
3. Aṅga,
4. Magadha,
5. Vajji,
6. Malla,
7. Cetiya (Cedī),
8. Vaṃsa (Vatsa),
9. Kuru,
10. Pañchāla,
11. Maccha (Matsya),
12. Sūrasena,
13. Assaka
14. Avanti.

Gandhāra and Kamboj, the two remaining countries, may be said to have been located in Uttarāpatha or the "Northern Division."

Scythian Lands: The "Middle Country"

Central Asian Indo-Aryan Scythians

[The Buddha, or "Sage of the Scythians" or the "Shakya Clan," Shakya-muni or Scythia-muni or Saka-muni was born among the] Indo-Scythians (also called Indo-Sakas) in modern day Afghanistan.

They were a group of nomadic Iranian (the original Aryans) peoples of Scythian origin who migrated from Central Asia southward into northern and western regions of ancient Greater India (which only came into existence with the Buddhist Emperor Ashoka's uniting of the subcontinent) from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 4th century CE.

First human depiction of the Buddha: Gandhara

The first Saka king of India was Maues/Moga (1st century BC), who established Saka power in Gandhara (modern Pakistan with its ancient capital at Taxila) and the Indus Valley [with its ancient civilization extending back to mysterious Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa].

The Indo-Scythians extended their supremacy over northwestern India, conquering the Indo-Greeks and other local kingdoms.

The Indo-Scythians were apparently subjugated by the Kushan Empire, by either Kujula Kadphises or Kanishka [4]. Yet the Saka continued to govern as satrapies [5], forming the Northern Satraps and Western Satraps.

The power of the Saka rulers started to decline in the 2nd century CE after the Indo-Scythians were defeated by the Satavahana Emperor Gautami-putra ["Son of Gautami"] Satakarni [6, 7].

Indo-Scythian rule in the northwestern Indian subcontinent ceased when the last Western Satrap Rudrasimha III was defeated by the Gupta Emperor Chandragupta II in 395 CE [8, 9].

The invasion of northern regions of the Indian subcontinent by Scythian tribes from Central Asia, often referred to as the Indo-Scythian invasion, played a significant part in the history of the Indian subcontinent as well as nearby countries.

The future Buddha as a Central Asian king

In fact, the Indo-Scythian war is just one chapter in the events triggered by the nomadic flight of Central Asians from conflict with tribes such as the Xiongnu in the 2nd century AD, which had lasting effects on Bactria, Kabul [one part of Kapilavastu (which Wisdom Quarterly has determined must be the three seasonal capitals of Bamiyan, Mes Aynak, and Kabul, modern Afghanistan, better referred to as "Shakya Land" as it does not include all of Scythia], and the Indian subcontinent as well as far-off Rome in the west, and more nearby to the west in Parthia.

Ancient Roman historians, including Arrian [10] and Claudius Ptolemy, have mentioned that the ancient Sakas ("Sakai") were nomadic people [11].

However, Italo Ronca, in his detailed study of Ptolemy's Chapter VI, states that "The land of the Sakai
belongs to nomads, they have no towns but dwell in forests and caves" as spurious.[12] More

• Crucial to understanding the unknown history of the Buddha in Afghanistan (rather than Nepal) is the work of maverick Indian "anti-Jonesian" historian Dr. Ranajit Pal (ranajitpal.com)
• The Buddha's relics and pyre ashes kept in Bimaran casket
• Or was it the Bajaur casket - stone box with gold container?