Lalit Vistara

Author(s): Rajendralala Mitra
Publisher: Asiatic Society

Page 55

OĦAPTER IIT:
59 derivative Valdehí must mean the dynasty relating to that pro.. * e, but the province named is Magadha ; it must follow, therefore,
that either ancient Magadha included Tirhut, or a scion of the Vaidehí dynasty reigned in Magadha. The last is the most probable.
21. Kos'ala, (p. 38). Ayodhyá, inodern Oudh, of which Srávastí, modern Fyzabad, was the capital. Brahinalat ta, a heretic, was its king, and he is therefore denounced as the descendant of a Chandála.
22. Vañburája dynasty, (p. 38). lu the Tibotan the name is Vadsa, a country of which Kausámhi or Vatsapattana was the capital. General Cunuingham has identified the site of Kausámbi in the Duab of the Ganger.
23. Vais'ali, (p. 39) more correctly spelt Vaisáli. General Cunningham has identified this town with nodern Besadlı near Patna. (Ancient Geography of Indin, p. 443). It was of great reuown in former times, and is frequently referred to in tho Puráņas and in Buddhist legends. Its most remarkable peculiarity appears to have been its republican institutions. The people were “rogardless of the respect diie to rank, superiors, elders and the aged," i. e., they all held themselves to be oqual, and web proclaimed “ I am the king, I ain the king." This was evidently an autonoinous city somewhat like those of which Arrian makes mention on the west of the Hyphasis. Thus “Alexander had, moreover beard that the country beyond tho Hyphasis was rich, and the inhabitants thereof good husbandmen and excellent soldiers, that they were governed by the nobility, and lived peaceably, their rulers imposing nothing harsh nor unjust upon them.". Rooke's Arrian v. 25, II, p. 64. The words of Arrian are após yap tứv άριστον άρχεσθαι τους πολλούς, τους δε ουδέν έξω του επιεικούς εξηγείσθαι. Diodorus Siculus has something to the same effect, II, Cap. XXXIX. These suggest an oligarchical form of government, but the words of the text imply more. That it was a development of the village system 90 graphically described by Sir Henry Mline is evident. It is to be much regretted that fuller information on the subject is not available in ancient Indian works. Sir Henry Elliot, in his Muhammadan Historians, was of opinion that the idea of freedom among the Hindus was "the offscouring of college declamation :" the text of the Lalite Vistara and the testimony of Arrian contradict that entirely...
24. Pradvotana dinasty, (p. 89). This dynasty reigned in Ujjayini,