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Lord Mahāvīra and His Times. three walls at a distance of a Gāvuta from one another, each provided with gates and watch towers. It was rich in a variety of buildings, chaityas, and palaces of its 7707 chiefs.? There were beautiful parks, gardens, and lotus ponds. The city has also been described as 'opulent, prosperous and populous." It looked like the loka of Sakra' in the magnificence of its appearance and the happiness of its inmates who had continual festivities. The city comprised three districts. The first district had 7,000 houses with golden towers; the middle one had 14,000 houses with silver towers, and the last district possessed 21,000 houses with copper towers. These houses were under the possession of the upper, the middle and the lower classes, according to their positions. Jaina traditions inform us that Kshatriyas, Brāhmanas, and vaniks occupied their respective Upanagaras in Vaiśāli.”
The existence of some of these cities in the sixth century B.C. is confirmed even by the archacological evidence. The planning of the city of Girivraja8 or Rājagriha' in the sixth century B.C. was the work of a genius. It is surrounded on all sides by hills and its surviving city walls and fortification still show the architectural standard reached during that period. These city walls were built in cyclopacan fashion, of massive unheaven blocks of stone pierced by gateways, cach flanked on either side by a semi-circular bastion, over which probably rose the watch-tower, an almost invariable fcature of these fortress cities. The fortification hitherto believed to be built of rubble is supposed to have been founded by Ajātaśatru. Originally, there was a mud rampart. The top of this rampart was hardened by yellowish mud and brick
1. Jā, Vol. I, No. 149. 2. Ibid, p. 316. According to the Mahavagga, there werc 7707 pinnacled
buildings. 3. LEFMANN: Lalitaristara, Chap. III, p. 21. 4. W. W. ROCKHILL : The Life of the Buddha, p. 63. 5. Ibid, p. 62. 6. Ibid, p. 62. 7. Vaisili Excavations, 1905, p. I. 8. Girivraja or the city of hills is said in the allahübhūrata to belong to the
Bárhadrathas in which time Jarasandha was a great sulcr. 1. The new Rajasșiha was founded by Bimbisára.
