Urban Centres and Urbanisation (As Reflected in the Pali Vinaya and Sutta Pitakas)

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The second edition of this book went out of print in 2007. Taking into consideration this heavy demand of this book by students and research scholars, and availability of funds made by the UGC to subsidize its publication, it was decided to bring out the third edition, revised. In this third edition, the map has been divided into two parts making it more rational. The portion of the map covering Majjhimadesa, where the Buddha was active, has been given separately as part two. The first part covers the rest of Jambudipa.

I am grateful to Prof. Bhikshu Satyapala and Prof. Anita Sharma for taking keen interest in the publication of this paperback edition. I am also grateful to Dr S.M. Haldhar, Dr A.K. Singh, Dr Krishna Murari, Dr Sanjay Kumar Singh, and Shri Anmol Jha for doing various odd jobs relating to the publication of this edition. I owe thanks to the University Grants commission for a grant which partly defrayed the publication cost. In the end, I am immensely grateful to Shri Ashok Jain of Munshiram Manoharlal Publications for bringing out this edition in a record time.

The first edition of this book was published in 1990 and has been out of print for about ten years. During the last fifteen years, I had the opportunity of doing some work on a couple of the settlements which had remained unidentified so far. As a result, I have added Kammasadhamma and Thullakotthita to the list of identified settlements in this edition, besides, an extra appendix (no. III) has also been added. Now better fonts as well as programs to print letters with diacritical marks have become available on the computers. This has helped in removing many of the printer’s devils that had crept into the first edition.

Dr Anita Sharma helped with the updating of the bibliography. In the preparation of the index as well as the map, I have received help from Dr S.M. Haldhar, Dr A.K. Singh, Dr Krishna Murari, Dr Sanjay Kumar Singh, Mr A.K. Jha, Mr Dilip Kumar Thakur, and Mr Saurabh Jha. Mr B.N. Tiwari of Vidyanidhi Prakashan helped in brining out this edition in the shortest possible time. I extend my sincere thanks to all of them.

In 1985, I was awarded the Commonwealth Scholarship to do PhD in Oriental Studies at University of Cambridge. This book represents about two – thirds of my doctoral dissertation that I submitted to the University of Cambridge in May 1989 through Clare hall, Churchill College, and the Faculty of Oriental Studies.

I wish to express my deep sense of gratitude to Prof. F.R. Allchin, my supervisor, for his valuable guidance and constructive criticism. I would also like to thank Dr B.R. Allchin for her encouragement from time to time. I am grateful to the members of the faculty of oriental studies in particular Prof. K.R. Norman for many acts of kindness and Dr J.D. Smith for lending me a program on diacritical marks. I should like to express my deep gratitude to my former teachers Dr D.K. Chakrabarti (Dhaka), Prof. Sanghasena Singh (Delhi), and the late Prof. D. Devahuti (Delhi), who took special interest in my work. My special thanks are due to Prof. B.G. Gokhale (Winston – Salem), Dr Makkhan Lal (Aligarh), Prof. Amalia Pezzali (Bologna), and Dr George Erdosy (Cambridge) for valuable criticism of various portions of the rough draft.

I am indebted to the staff of the oriental faculty library, University Library, Haddon Library, and the Ancient India and Iran Trust Library, and the India House Library (all at London) for lending me books and other assistance. I am very considerably indebted to Dr N.S. Pradhan, Principal, K.M. College (Delhi University) for granting me three – year study leave.

I am most grateful to the commonwealth commission (London), the Association of commonwealth Universities (London), and the Ministry of Education (Government of India) for the award of Commonwealth Scholarship, which mainly financed my study and stay in the United Kingdom. I am also grateful to the Ancient India and Iran Trust (Cambridge), the Charles Wallace Trust, the Leche Trust, the British Council, and the Association of Commonwealth Universities (all at London) for partly contributing towards the expenses of a field – trip in India and attendance at conferences at Hamburg (W. Germany), Berkeley (USA), and Leiden (Holland).

I am also indebted to Sunita, Neha, and Nidhi for constant source of strength and encouragement during the study. I also wish to thank all my professional friends especially Anita Sharma (Delhi University), Anamika Roy, Gyanesh Kudaisya, Indivar Kamtekar, and Medha Malik (all of Churchill College, Cambridge) for various kinds of support.