in above, the writer says:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Gonaddha can very well be taken to stand for Gonadda-Gonarda, the place from which Patanjali , author of Mahabhashya, hailed. Sir RamaKrishna Bhandarkar has shown on the authority of the Mahabhashya that Saketa was situated on the road from Gonarda to Pataliputra (IA,II.7c) This is exactly in accordance with what the Sutta nipata says, for Saketa , according to the route taken by Bavarin's pupils was on the way from Gonaddha to the Magadha country. The native place of Patanjali was , there fore, in Central India, somewhere between Ujjain and Besnagar near Bhilsa.
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I think there may be a stronger candidate for "Gonaddha" - that is the modern Gonda town of Eastern UP, separated by a few miles from the modern town of ayodhya on the other side of the Sarayu river. It will also make sense since sAketa in koshala will fall directly en-route when traveling from modern Gonda to pAtaliputra in magadha. Another reason in favour of this candidate is that the Gonda was central to many important bauddha sites including sAvatthI (shrAvastI), and therefore must have been better known to bauddha monks. Besides, being on confluence of several rivers, it was probably also a rather important harbour for traders, and therefore better known. By the way, traditional etymology of gonAddha/gonDA/gonArda is 'gonAda: the noise of cows'.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Gonaddha can very well be taken to stand for Gonadda-Gonarda, the place from which Patanjali , author of Mahabhashya, hailed. Sir RamaKrishna Bhandarkar has shown on the authority of the Mahabhashya that Saketa was situated on the road from Gonarda to Pataliputra (IA,II.7c) This is exactly in accordance with what the Sutta nipata says, for Saketa , according to the route taken by Bavarin's pupils was on the way from Gonaddha to the Magadha country. The native place of Patanjali was , there fore, in Central India, somewhere between Ujjain and Besnagar near Bhilsa.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think there may be a stronger candidate for "Gonaddha" - that is the modern Gonda town of Eastern UP, separated by a few miles from the modern town of ayodhya on the other side of the Sarayu river. It will also make sense since sAketa in koshala will fall directly en-route when traveling from modern Gonda to pAtaliputra in magadha. Another reason in favour of this candidate is that the Gonda was central to many important bauddha sites including sAvatthI (shrAvastI), and therefore must have been better known to bauddha monks. Besides, being on confluence of several rivers, it was probably also a rather important harbour for traders, and therefore better known. By the way, traditional etymology of gonAddha/gonDA/gonArda is 'gonAda: the noise of cows'.