Page Text
________________ The Glimpses of Valsali they tell us that before Mabavira there lived not less than 23 Tirthankaran or prophets who, appearing at stated intervals, preached the only true religion of the salvation of the world." 1 feel greatly delighted that the acceptance of your invitation to inaugurate the Conference gives me an opportunity to pay my tribute of worship to Bhagavan Mahavira, one of the greatest religious thinkers and prophets of Bharata varsa. Vaisali Sangha has one of its objects in celebrating, once a year, the Vaisali festival, "to recapture the glory and the spirit of joy that marked the life of the Vaisalian people" in the past. At present, however, Vajsali is merely a deserted place, where, on the surface, you see no evidence of its greatness, grandeur or glory, to which frequent reference is made in the ancient works of Hindus, Jains and Buddhists, as well as in the accounts of travels of certain travellers from China and other countries. Its glorious past lies buried in the earth. I need not apologise to you for giving below a somewhat long quotation from Buddhist India of Dr. T. W. Rhys Davids: "This (i.e. Vesali) was the capital of the Licchavi clan, already closely related by marriage to the kings of Magadha, and the ancestors of the kings of Nepal, of the Mauryas, and of the dynasty of the Guptas. It was the headquarters of the powerful Vajjian confederacy, afterwards defeated, but not broken up, by Ajatasattu. It was the only great city in all the territories of the free clans who formed so important a factor in the social and political life of the sixth century B. C. It must have been a great and flourishing place." One of the most remarkable things which will strike the students of histroy, and particularly of the constitutional history of India, is the juxta position of big empires and small republics in this part of India. The Licchavi republic, of which Vaisali was the capital, was one of the many clan republics referred to by name in the oldest Pali records. The Sakiyas, the Bulis, the Kalamas, the Bhaggas, the Koliya's, the Mallas of Pava, the Mallas of Kusinara, the Moriyas, and the Licchavis occupied in the 6th century B.C. the whole country east of Kosala between the mountains and the Ganges. All these were republics. The administrative and judicial business of the clan was carried out in public assembly, at which young and old were alike present, in their common Mote Hall (santhagara). A single chief-how, and for what period chosen, we do not know--was elected as office-holder, presiding over the sessions, and, if no sessions were sitting, over the State. He bore
| SR No. | 012088 |
| Book Title | Vaishali Abhinandan Granth |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Yogendra Mishra |
| Publisher | Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology and Ahimsa |
| Publication Year | 1985 |
| Total Pages | 592 |
| Language | Hindi, English |
| Classification | Smruti_Granth |
| File Size | 17 MB |