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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(OCTOBER, 1928
at an assembly of the Rsis of Naimişâranya (Mbh. i. 1). And more than half the Puranas declare themselves products of Naimişâranya (cf. Kurma, i. 2; Skanda, i. 1. 2, etc.). Even in cases where the scene is laid in other places (e.g., Brahmanda i. 13; Vayu i. 14, etc.), it is still the Rşis of Naimişâranya to whom the leadership of thought-movement is ascribed. Now, Naimisaranya was nearer to the Kuru-Pañcala than to Videha and was situated in the zone of territory in which the Brahmaņas are supposed to have been composed. It may be supposed that these people were not lacking in sympathy for the Kuru-Paño ala men. That even these Rşis and these Puranas assign a very high place of honour to the royal dynasty of Videha, is a fact that cannot be lightly passed over. And besides, there is no disparagement of the eastern districts in these books. This shews that Videha really deserved the honour.
That the territory comprising Videha and its neighbourhood was the centre of great intellectual movements, is further shewn by the rise of Buddhism in this area. A reference has already been made to Buddhism ; it was a product mainly of these very districts for which some of the Sruti texts have been understood to express nothing but contempt. In fact, the very sneers at Magadha in later Vedic literature, have been supposed by some as due to the rise of the heterodox religion of Buddha in that land. (See Oldenberg, Buddha, p. 400 n.) Whether this is true or not, the outstanding fact remains that Videha-Magadha was the centre of intellectual and spiritual activity of a very high order. And the assumption is quite reasonable that the spirit of frut inquiry that the Upanişads exhibit and the revolt against Vedic religion which is exemplified in Buddhism, may have been helped and encouraged by each other. References to Brahma-vidya, to the state of having attained Brahma, and also to the kings of Mithilâ are frequent enough in Buddhistic literature. Thus, in Jatakamaila, (Saša játaka 28), we find the expression brahmavidám varişthah; and in Maitrúbala-játaku, occurs the expression brahmabhủyam; and in Brahma-játaka, a king of Videna is brought round to the right way of life by the instruction of the Bodhisattva who was born in the realm of Brahma (Brahmaloka). In Moore's Sayings of Buddha, (p. 35), Buddha says “I became Brahma ". Mahävastu iii. 325, speaks of brahmavida (dharmmeņa 80 brahmano brahmavidam vadeya, etc.). All these things bespeak an acquaintance with the cult of Brahma-vidyd. Then there are the references to kings of Mithila also (e.g., Jataka Nos. 9, 408, 498, etc.) Though the names of the kings as given in these texts are not exactly the same as in the Vignu Purana and elsewhere, yet some names, such as that of Nimi, are common, showing that the identical dynasty of kings as in view.
All these considerations show that Videha-Magadha was a soil where a free and independent thinking could strike root; and our other evidences have proved that this was the soil where Brahma-vidyd too had its first home.
There is one possible objection which may be considered here. The evidences that we have been discussing refer mainly to the court of Videha rather than to its people or its provinces. The court was certainly not the place of instruction—the place, that is to say, where pupils were taught. And it is also a truism to say that the cult could not have been developed without regular instruction being given to students. Now where was this instruction given? Not of course in the court of the king; but it was presumably under the patronage of the court that a majority of the teachers lived, and so, they must have had their seat of instruction not far from the court. Besides, very many of the teachers had little of a home to own : they lived a more or less peripatetic life and wherever they went, their pupils alsc went along with them. Yajñavalkya comes to the court of Janaka with his disciples crowding about him; and it is one of these pupils that he orders to drive home the cows which the king offered as reward to the most learned man in the assembly (Br. iii. 1. 2). Sakalya too had his pupils with him ; and when he was suddenly killod by Yajnavalkya's curse, his bones were carried off by these pupils (ibid., iii. 9. 26). That the Brahman teachers moved about
