For centuries the world has repeated the story that King Bimbisāra founded the ancient city of Magadha, the political heart of early Buddhism.
But the Theravāda Tripiṭaka tells a completely different story — one that begins not in India, but in the sacred Hela lands.
Maha Govinda – The Architect of Cities
In the Mahāgovinda Sutta (Dīgha Nikāya), the Buddha recounts how Maha Govinda, a great sage and Brahma-born architect, designed the city of Magadha — “Magadhānaṃ Giribbajaṃ nagaraṃ nivesesi.”
This is not mythic poetry but a direct canonical record describing how the Hela civilization’s spiritual and architectural genius shaped the earliest centers of Buddhist culture.
Rājagaha and the Hela Connection
The Mahākassapa Sutta of the Buddhaka Nikāya clarifies that Maha Govinda lived in Rājagaha Nuwara, known in Lanka’s ancient chronicles as Govinda Helaya.
The very term Helaya reflects the name of the Hela people — ancestors of the Sinhalas — indicating that Rājagaha was not an Indian royal capital, but a Hela-origin settlement preserved in Buddhist tradition.
The Govinda Helaya Inscription
Archaeological evidence supports this claim. The Nava Śilā Lekhana Saṅgrahaya records Inscription No. 256, created by the daughter of Mahā Panditha Govinda, discovered in Siyabalanduva, Ampara (Sri Lanka).
This inscription explicitly refers to the region as Govinda Helaya, preserving the same name mentioned in the suttas — a rare and direct epigraphic link between the Tripiṭaka’s Maha Govinda and the Lankan landscape.
Rewriting the Origin of Magadha
If the Mahāgovinda Sutta is accepted as authentic Buddhist record — and the Govinda Helaya inscription truly exists in Lanka — then the so-called Magadha of India may have been a later adaptation, not the original.
In this light, King Bimbisāra did not found Magadha; he merely ruled over a region already designed by Hela architects and spiritual visionaries.
The real Magadha, the original Giribbaja-pura, was a city planned by Maha Govinda of Lanka — the architect of kings and the builder of civilization itself.
References & Source Notes
- Dīgha Nikāya – Mahāgovinda Sutta (DN 19)
Pāli Canon (PTS Edition Vol. II pp. 220–252).
Mentions: “Maha Govindo nāma brāhmaṇo Magadhānaṃ Giribbajaṃ nagaraṃ nivesesi.” - Buddhaka Nikāya – Mahākassapa Sutta
Describes Maha Govinda residing in Rājagaha Nuwara (Rājagaha-pura), later known as Govinda Helaya. - Nava Śilā Lekhana Saṅgrahaya (නව ශිලා ලේඛන සංග්රහය)
Inscription No. 256 – Siyabalanduva, Ampara.
Credited to “Maha Panditha Govinda ge duvā” and mentions “Govinda Helaya.” - Mahāvaṃsa (Ch. 6–7)
Notes early Hela settlements and intellectual lineages consistent with the Govinda-Panditha tradition. - Indian Historical Counterpart
Hultzsch, E. (1925) Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Vol. I; Puranic Genealogies of Magadha — attribute Magadha’s founding to Bimbisāra, but give no record of an architect or planner. - Comparative Research
- Seneviratne, S. (1995) The Archaeology of the Early Historic Period in Sri Lanka.
- Deraniyagala, S. U. (1992) The Prehistory of Sri Lanka (Vols. I–II).
Both highlight strong cultural and linguistic ties between early Lanka and the Magadhan plain.
Special Acknowledgement
BuddhaOfLanka extends heartfelt gratitude to Miss Kumudu Thennakoon (Travel With Kumudu) for her invaluable insights and field contributions regarding the Govinda Helaya inscription at Siyabalanduva, Ampara.
Her dedication to uncovering Sri Lanka’s forgotten Buddhist heritage continues to inspire this research and the broader effort to retrace the true origins of the Dhamma in the Hela lands.
