A city in India, capital of King Milinda (Mil.pp.1, 3, etc.).

In various Jātaka stories — e.g., the Kāliṅgabodhi (J.iv.230) and the Kusa (J.v.283), and also in the scholiast of the Umaṅga (J.vi.471, 473) — Sāgala is mentioned as the capital of the Madda kings. It was also evidently called Sākala. (e.g., Mahābhārata 14, 32; tatah Sākalaṃ abhyetvā Mādrānāṃ putabhedanaṃ).

Sāgala was the birthplace of Khemā Therī, (ThigA.127; Ap.ii.546; AA.i.187) of Bhaddā Kāpilānī, (ThigA.68; Ap.ii.583; AA.i.99) and of Queen Anojā (DhA.ii.116).

It is said (DhA.iii.281 f; cp. the story of Anitthigandha, a Pacceka Buddha, given in SNA.i.69) that when Anitthigandhakumāra refused to marry any woman unless she resembled a golden image possessed by him, the messengers sent by his parents found a girl in Sāgala who possessed the necessary requirements, but she was delicate, and died on her way from Sāgala to Sāvatthi.

It is perhaps the same city that is mentioned in the Vinaya (Vin.iii.67) as the residence of Daḷhika.

Sāgala is identified with the modern Sialkot in the Punjab (Law, Geog. 53).