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144
Lord Mahavira
be a kingdom ruled by the chief of another clan, so close to the capital of the Licchavis. Siddhartha belonged to the Jnatr (Naya or Nata) clan and was in marital relation with the Licchavis, his wife Trisala being the daughter of the Licchavi king Cetaka.
(ii) The present Kammana Chapra is at a distance of one kilometer only from the present Basokunda. It is not plausible that the Lord ended his day's journey merely at a distance of one kilometer.
(iii) There is no trace of any waterway between Basokunda and Kammana Chapra. nor is there any such trace in the neighbourhood of Basokunda.
(iv) The present village of Basokunda is a very small one, with a population of approximately two thousand. The whole village is almost plane with two tracts to low land called chauri. It has no sign of any ancient habitation. The said uncultivated land is in the same level with the surrounding area and does not seem to have been uncultivated for more than few decades.
(v) If we suppose that the 'Kunda' part of this village name is the survivor of its counterpart in the ancient Ksatriya Kundagrama, we reach the conclusion that the distinguishing feature of the village name, namely 'Ksatriya' has been lost and the term 'Kunda' which was common to both Brahmana Kundagrama and Ksatriya Kundagrama has survived. But this is contrary to expectation. Generally in compound proper names ending in a common term the first distinguishing part should be retained and not the second member which is common to two or more.
So, there is case for re-thinking over the exact location of Lord Mahâvîra's birthplace.
We may start with the assumption that the epithet Vesaliya' for Lord Mahâvîra is not spurious because it has been found in two of the most ancient Jain canons viz. Suyagadam and Uttarajjhayana and it indicates that the Lord hailed from Vaisali or its surrounding area. Rsabha who hailed from Kosala has been called Kosaliya; in the same way, Lord Mahâvîra who hailed from Vaisali area has been called Vesaliya. We can not assume that he was born in the city of Vaisali because at several places in the Ardhamagadhi canons he has been said to be born in Ksatriya
