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126 INDIA AS DESCRIBED 'N EARLY TEXTS the royal family of Okkāka. The Mallas and the Licchavis as two neighbouring peoples established friendly relations between them at least for their self-defence, though the Bhaddasāla Jātaka (No. 465) offers us an account of a conflict between them. At the time of the rise of Buddhism the Mallas were divided into two main sections, one having their capital at Pāvā and the other at Kusinārā. There was current among the Mallas a living tradition of the former glory of Kusinārā, which was built on the site of the ancient city of Kušāvatī, which was the capital of the king Mahāsudassana. There was a great belt of a Himalayan forest called Mahāvana which covered some portions of the Vajji and Malla territories. The Mallas retained their independence till the demise of the Buddha, as we find that both the main sections of the Mallas? appeared among claimants for shares of the bodily remains of the Master. It is not yet possible to collect the names of all the nine branches of the Mallas mentioned in the Jaina Kalpasūtra.
The Säkyas who, too, formed a confederacy with the Koliyas, have a permanent place in the history of India and of the world on account of the birth of the Buddha Gotama among them. They founded a kingdom named after them in
1 Digha, 4, p. 170. . Thd., 1, p. 167.
