Jain Journal 1967 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 63

190
It is quite impossible that such a complicated ruling of the Videha country and the city of Vaisali has any degree of likelihood; and the assumption of the identity of Jiyasattu with Cetaka is based on nothing. Cetaka is mahārajā (Kalpa Sutra Commentary 128), king of Vaisali and of Videha15; his daughter Trisala is Mahavira's mother (Acārānga, II 15, 15); she is named therefore Videhadatta and Mahavira therefore again Videha (Acaranga, II, 15, 17; Kalpa Sūtra, 110). And because Vaisali was in this time the capital of Videha, Mahavira is named also Vaisalian.
Buddhist writings give another picture of Vesali. The Kotigama is mentioned, near the city (Mahāvagga, VI, 30); another village is Beluva. In Digha Nikaya (XVI, 2, 21; XVI, 3, 2) are described the cetiyas of Vesali-, Udena-, Gotamaka1-, Sattambaka-, Bahuputra-, Sarandada- and Capala cetiya. Less importance can be laid on the description in Dulva (III, fol. 8017); it may be connected with Mahāvagga (VIII, 1) in any way.
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So much about Vaisali and Vanijyagrama; but the chapter of the "history of Vaisali" is not yet written18. It seems that the coincidence between Buddhist and Jinist literature respecting Vaisali is not great and it seems further that the Licchavis did not play the same role in the time of Mahavira as in Buddha's time19.
6-7. Rajagrha and Nalanda. According to the Bhagavati Sutra20 Nalanda was a bahiriya of Rayagiha (p. 1206) and the same expression we meet in Kalpa Sutra (II, 122); from Sutrakṛtānga (II, 7, 1) we learn that it was situated in a north-eastern direction. In Digha Nikaya (I, 1, 1; XI, 1) Nalanda is represented as a greater town, near Rajagrha. It is possible that the growth of villages, former suburbs, led to independent towns; in the Mahāvyutpatti (193, 18) Sri Nalandah
15
Uvasagadasao, 1.c., p. 6, n. 9.
16 Digha Nikaya, translated by R. O. Franke, p. 204, n. 5. He is right to say that the caityas are sometimes trees. In Divyavadana 201, 5 and 14 the Gautamanyagrodha is mentioned as a caitya of Vaisali.
17 W. W. Rockhill, The Life of the Buddha, London 1907, p. 62.
18 A short article has been published by V. A. Smith in Hasting's Encyclopaedia
of Religions and Ethics XII, p. 567 f. Cf. JRAS 1905, p. 152-154.
10 Cf. T. W. Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, p. 26. SO Cited by Hoernle, Uvasagadasao, 1. c., App. I, p. 1.