Kacchakatittha untranslated

Kacchakatittha (Kacchatittha). A ford in the Mahā Vālukagaṅgā, near the Dhūmarakkha mountain. It was here that Paṇḍukābhaya captured the Yakkhinī Cetiyā (Mhv.x.59). This was a strategic point in the wars with the Tamils, and we find Kākavaṇṇatissa entrusting its protection to his son Dīghābhaya (Mhv.xxiii.17). It is probable that, some time afterwards, the place fell into the hands of the Tamils, for we find Duṭṭhagāmaṇī mentioned as having captured it from the Tamil general Kapisīsa (Mhv.xxv.12). According to the Mahā Vaṁsaṭīkā (322, 366) the place was nine leagues from Anurādhapura, but Nimila journeyed there and back in one day.

The Aṅguttara Commentary (i.367) mentions that a man named Mahā Vācakāla was once born there as a crocodile, a fathom in length, for having cast doubts on the efficacy of the Buddha’s religion. Once he swallowed sixty carts with the bulls attached to them, the carts being filled with stone.

The ford is now identified with Mahā Gantoṭa, the spot where the Ambaṅgaṅga and the Maha Veligaṅga meet (Geiger, Mhv.Trs., 72, n.2). The Ambaṅgaṅga was probably called Kacchakanadī, and at the spot where it met the Maha Veligaṅga, King Subha built the Nandigāmaka vihāra. See Mhv.xxxv.58, and Mhvṭ.472; on this passage see also Geiger’s Trs., p.250, n.2; Mhvṭ.472.