I'm trying to pin down the stories surrounding the town of Paavaa
with some more precision. Unfortunately, there seem to be at least
three 'Pavas':
Paavaa 1. The town of the Mallas, near Kusinara, where the Buddha
ate his last meal, also where, according to the Suttas, Mahavira the
leader of the Jains, met his end.
Paavaa 2. Another Pava, or 'Paavapuuri', near Pataliputta (ie, south
of the Ganges), which is where the Svetambara Jains say Mahavira
passed away. Normally one might be more inclined to accept the
Jains' own account of the death of their founder; but the Jain
scriptures are much later than the Pali, and this tradition is in
any case not shared by all the Jains, so it is unclear whether we
should favor the Buddhist or the Jain account here.
Paavaa 3. A third Pava, which according to a Pali commentary
(where???), is west of Kosala; this might be identified as the home
of the 'Paaveyyakas' of the Second Council account in the
Khandhakas.
The situation is confused by variant readings. De la Vallee Poisson
accepted the reading 'patheya' for Paavaa 3, quoting a source that
claims patheya to be a general term for the western regions,
including Avanti, etc. (But this might be just a circular argument
derived from the Khandaka account of the Second Council,
where 'paaveyyaka/paa.theyyaka' is indeed used in the sense
of 'those from the western regions'.)
However, the Dictionary Of Pali Proper Names rejects the reading,
given there as 'Paa.theyyaka', as a peculiarity of the Burmese
manuscript tradition. This is followed by Horner in her Vinaya
translation.
The sources available to me occasionally note the commentarial
mention of a 'Paavaa' that is 'way out west' beyond Savatthi,
without addressing the problem that this cannot be the same as
Paavaa 1, featured in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta.
Are there two Paavaas north of the Ganges, or a Paavaa and a
Patheya, or is the commentarial mention of Paavaa 3 to be rejected?
Help!