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leader of this confederacy was Cetaka 38 whose sister Trisala or Videhadatta was the mother of Mahavira, and whose daughter Cellana or Vedehi was, according to Jaina writers, the mother of Kunika-Ajatasatru.
The great rival of Vaisali was Magadha. Tradition says that even in the time of the famous Bimbisara the Vaisalians were audacious enough to invade their neighbours across the Ganges34. But in the reign of Ajatasatru the tables were turned, and the great confederacy of Vaisali was utterly destroyed.
The preliminaries to the conquest of Vesali (Vaisali) are described in the Mahāvagga and the Mahāparinibbāna Suttānta36.
family prestige from their original connection with the dynasties of Kasi and Kosala. The Paramattha jotika (Khuddakapatha Commentary), however, connects the Licchavis not with the dynasty of Kosala but with that of Kasi. The divergent testimony of these late commentators shows that they can hardly be regarded as preserving genuine tradition. There is no suggestion in any early Buddhist or Jaina text that either the Licchavis or the Mallas actually ruled over any grama or nigama in Kasi-Kosala (see Indian Culture, II, 808). The ganarajas of Kasi-Kosala apparently refer to the Kalamas, Sakyas and other clans in the Kosalan empire.
13 In the opinion of several scholars Cetaka was a Licchavi. The secondary names of his sister (Videhadatta) and daughter (Videhi) may however, indicate, that he was a Videhan domiciled at Vesali. But the names may, have, been used also in a geographical sense.
34 Si-yu-ki, Bk. IX. 85 SBE, XVII, p. 101 ; XI, pp. 1-5.
Reprinted from Hemchandra Raychaudhuri, the Political History of Ancient India, Calcutta, 1938, pp. 99-106. Courtesy University of Calcutta, Calcutta.
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