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Alasandā

A city in the land of the Yonā. There was a large Buddhist community there and it is said, in the Mahāvaṃsa (xxix.40), that on the occasion of the foundation of the Mahā Thūpa by Duṭṭhagāmani, the thera Yonaka Mahā Dhammarakkhita came to Anurādhapura from Alasanda with 30,000 monks.

In the Milindapañha (p.327) Alasandā is mentioned in a list of places, among which are Cīna, Bārāṇasi and Gandhāra.

Elsewhere in the same book (82, 83), King Milinda is mentioned as saying that he was born in a village named Kalasi in Alasandā, but he speaks of Alasandā as an island. It was about two hundred leagues from Sāgala.

It is generally accepted (e.g., in Questions of King Milinda, i., p.xxiii, see also CHI., p.550) that Alasandā was the name of an island in the Indus in the territory of Bactria. Geiger (Mhv.trs.194, n.3) thinks that it is probably to be identified with the town founded by the Macedonian king in the country of Paropanisadae near Kabul.

In the Apadāna (Ap.i.359) the Alasandakā are mentioned in a list of tribes.