Gotihawa

Village development committee in Lumbini Zone, Nepal

Gotihawa गोटिहवा
Village development committee
The Gotihawa Pillar of Ashoka.
27°31′N 83°02′E / 27.51°N 83.03°E / 27.51; 83.03
Country	Nepal
Zone	Lumbini Zone
District	Kapilvastu District
Elevation	103 m (338 ft)
Population (1991)
• Total	3,335
Time zone	UTC+5:45 (Nepal Time)

Gotihawa (formerly called Gutivā in Western sources) is a village development committee located about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) southeast of Kapilavastu, in Kapilvastu District, in the Lumbini Zone of southern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 3,335 people living in 567 individual households.^[1]

History

Modern-day Gotihawa was known as Khemavati in ancient times. According to Theravāda Buddhist tradition, Kakusandha Buddha was born in Khemavati.^[2] Kakusandha Buddha is one of the ancient Buddhas whose biography is chronicled in chapter 22^[2] of the Buddhavamsa, one of the books of the Pāli Canon.

The base of a Pillar of Ashoka has been discovered at Gotihawa, and it has been suggested that it is the original base of the Nigali Sagar pillar fragments, found a few miles away, which contain an inscription of Ashoka (3rd century BCE).^[3]

References

^ "Nepal Census 2001". Nepal's Village Development Committees. Digital Himalaya. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 14 December 2008.
^ ^a ^b Vicittasarabivamsa, U (1992). "Chapter 22: Kakusandha Buddhavamsa". In Ko Lay, U; Tin Lwin, U (eds.). The great chronicle of Buddhas, Volume One, Part Two (1st ed.). Yangon, Myanmar: Ti=Ni Publishing Center. pp. 274–80.
^ Irwin, John (1974). "'Aśokan' Pillars: A Reassessment of the Evidence-II: Structure". The Burlington Magazine. 116 (861): 721. ISSN 0007-6287.