Bhagvana Mahavira

Author(s): Tulsi Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 14

Bhagavān Mahāvīrą
The Kings of each Unit comprising the Vajji Republic were called Gananāyakas. The council of the Gananāyakas was called Gana Sabha or Republican Council. It made the constitution and the laws. The individual units were governed in accordance with the constitution of the gaña or the Union. The Vajji Republic was rich and well-developed in the fields of Politics, Economics, Society and Religion. The monarchists were highly jealous of this powerful Republic. They were bent upon destroyiog it. But they were helpless in the face of the powerful Vajjian army.
Videha with its capital at Vaiśālī was the biggest unit. Vaiśālī was divided into three zones. The first zone consisted of seven thousand residential houses with golden domes. The middle of the town consisted of fourteen thousand hou. ses with silver domes. The third zone consisted of twentyone thousand houses with copper domes. These zones were inhabited by the high, middle and lower classes respectively. Vaiśālī was not only the capital of the Licchavis, it was the capital of the entire Vajji Republic. It was enclosed within four city walls, each at a distance of two miles from the others. It had several ramparts and entrance-gates. The Republic was a confederation of six clans viz. the Ugras, the Bhojas, the Rājanyas, the Ikşvākus (the Licchavis), the Jñātas and the Kauravas.
The Malla Republic was divided into two units, one in the north-west with its capital at Kuśinārā and the other in the south-east with Pāvā as its capital. It extended as far in the east as the river Gandaka. In the west it extended upto Gorakhpur. In the north and the south it extended up to Nepal and the river Ganges respectively. Although it was an autonomous political unit, its Gananāyakas were the members of the powerful Vajji Republic. Its representatives in the Repulican Council were entitled to vote. The centre of the Vajji Republic lay in Videha in the north of the Ganges which divided the Vajjīs from Magadha. 1. It is now the Village Basādha in the Ratti Paraganā of District
Muzaffarpur. 2. Licchavi, Vajji (Sanskrit: Vriji) and Vaiśālika are synonyms. Manu
smrti, 10/10, speaks of the Licchavis as Vrátya.