Lord Mahavira

Author(s): Bool Chand
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society

Page 34

( 26 ) quarters of the Joãātýka Kshattriyas,"who were already known for their piety and non-violence, and abstention from sin and meat-eating," and that the republic was governed by an assembly of elders, one of whom assumed the position of the president. It is presumable that: Siddhartha occupied the position of the president of this republic ; for otherwise it might be somewhat difficult to explain his marriage with the sister of Chetaka, whom even Jacobi recognises as 'the powerful. king of Videha,' belonging to the Lichchavi sect of the Kshattriyas. Through the wife, Siddhartha--and following him, Mahivira-was related to the ruling dynasty of Magadha and the dynasties of Sauvira, Anga; Vatsa: (Vamsa) and Avanti. Chetaka had seven daughtérs, one of whom became a nun, but the other six were married in one or the other royal family of Eastern India. The youngest Chelana became the wife of Srenika (Bimbisara), king of Magadha; one Prabhavati was married to King Udayana of Vitabhya, which has been identified at various places in Jain literature with a town in Sindhu-Sauvira country, another Padmvati was married to King Dadhivahana of Champa, the capital of Anga; Mrgavati was married to King Satanika: of Kausambhi, the captial of. Vatsa; and Siva was married to Chanda Pradyta of Ujjaini, which was the capital of Avanti. That the tie of these relationships was real and strong, may be judged from the fact. that the books are always very particular in stating the names and gotras of all relations of Mahavira, although they have recorded little further information about them.
From the above it is clear that the environment in which Mahavira grew up .was necessarily royal atmosphere tempered with healthy influence of a republican character. His maternal relatives were practi.. cally all of them ruling princes, but his father was a republican chief and even his maternal uncle was a territorial ruler under the auspices of a republican confederacy—the famous Vajji confederacy of which eight