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Lord Mahāvīra and His Times
powerful political confederacy which included the Gana-Rājjas of Kāśī and Kosala.1 Vidūdabha, who succeeded him, seems to be the last ruler. The rivalry with Magadha ended in the absorption of the kingdom into the Magadhan empire. VRIJI
The Vrijji (Vajji) territory lay north of the Ganges and extended as far as the Nepal hills. At the time of Lord Mahā. vira, it was ruled by the Vajjian republic, about the constituent clans of which we are in the dark. On the basis of the name of a Judicial committee of the RepublicAtthakulaka (Ashtakulakā) some scholars2 assumed that the confederacy consisted of eight Kulas (clans). Of these, the old Videhas, the Lichchhavīs, the jñātrikas, and the Vrijis were the most important. The remaining seem to be the Ugras, the Bhogas, the Aikshvākavas, and the Kauravas because these are associated with the Jñátạis and the Lichchhavis as subjects of the same ruler and members of the same Assembly.3 The Anguttara Nikāya4 too refers to the close connection of the Ugras with Vaiśālī, the capital of the Vțijian confederation.
There is no reason to believe that the eight members of the judicial court represented the eight clans of the republic. YOGENDRA MISHRA5 has-tried to prove that Videhas of Mithilā did not form part of the Vajjian Republic. Vriji was only the name of the confederacy but not of the constituent clan. Only the six clans may be treated as inhabiting the Vajjian territory. The Lichchhavi capital was definitely at Vaiśāls, which is represented by modern Besarh (to the east of the Gandak) in the Muzaffarpur district of Bihar. The Jñatsikas were the clan of Siddhārtha and his son Mahāvīra, the Jina. They had their seats at Kundapura or Kundagrāma and Kollāga, suburbs of Vaiśālī. Though dwelling in suburban areas, Mahāvira and his fellow clansmen were known as
1. Bhag, 300. 2. CAG, pp. 512 ff. RBI, p. 25; B.C. LAW, Geography of Early
Buddhism, p. 12. 3. SBE, XLV, 339; Ucă, II, p. 138 fn. 304. + lagu, I. 26; III, 49; IV, 203. 5. An Early History of Vaisali, p. 122.
