Political History Of Ancient India

SR No.: 032292
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hemchandra Raychaudhari
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1950
Total Pages: 714
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 147

118 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
The Vajji (Vriji) territory lay north of the Ganges and extended as far as the Nepāl hills. On the west the river Gandak possibly separated it from the Mallas and perhaps also the Kosalas. Eastwards, it may have approached the forests that skirted the river Kosi and the Mahānandā. It is said to have included eight confederate clans (atthakula), of whom the old Videhas, the Lichchhavis, the linātņikas and the Vrijis proper were the most important. The identity of the remaining elans remains uncertain. It may, however, be noted that in a passage of the Sūtrakritānga, ttie Ugras, the Bhogas, the Aikshvūkas and the Kauravas are associated with the Jñātris and the Lichchhavis as subjects of the same ruler and members of the same assembly. The Anguttara Nikāya, too, refers to the close connection of the Ugras with Vaiśāli, the capital of the Vrijian confederation.
The old territory of the Videhas had, as already stated in an earlier section, its capital at Mitbilā which has been identified with Janakpur within the Nepāl border. The Rāmāyana clearly distinguishes it from the region round Vaiśālī. But in Buddhist and Jaina texts the distinction is not always maintained and Videha is used in a wide sense to include the last-mentioned area.
The Lichchhavi capital was definitely at Vaiśāli which is represented by modern Besarh (to the east of the Gandak) in the Muzaffarpur district of Bibār. It is
1 S. B. E., XLV, 339. Cf. Hoernle, Uvāsaga-dasāo, II. p, 138, n. 304. 2 I. 26; III. 49; IV. 208. 3 Ram. I. 47-48.
4 The Achāränga Sūtra (II. 15, $ 17; S. B. E., XXII, Intro.) for instance places the Sarniveśa of Kundagrāma near Vaiśāli in Videha. The mothers of Māhavira and Ajātaśatru are called Videha-dattā and Vedehi (Vaidehi) respectively.