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36
Lord Mahavira and His Times
Kolläga-Sanniveśa and Karmāragrāma are found. The nullalia near it is not the Gandakı river.
In the Mahāvagga of the Buddhists, it has been said that Buddha, while sojourning at Kotiggāma, was visited by the courtezan Ambapāli and the Lichchhavis of the neighbouring capital, Vaiśālī. From Koțiggāma, he went to where the Nātikas lived. There he lodged in the Nātika Brick Hall. From there he went to Vaiśālī where he converted the general-in-chief (of the Lichchhavis), a lay disciple of the Nirgranthas. H. JACOBI has identified Kotiggāma of the Buddhists with Kundagāma of the Jainas. Apart from the similarity of the names, the reference to the Nātikas, apparently identical with the Jñātrika Kshatriyas to whose clan Mahāvjra belonged, and to Siha, the Jaina, points to the same direction. Kundagrāma, therefore, was probably one of the suburbs of Vaiśālī, the capital of Videha. This conjecture is borne out by the name Vesālie, i.e. Vaišalika given to Mahāvīra in the Sūtraksitānga. Vaiśālika apparently means a native of Vaišāli; and Mahāvīra could rightly be called as such when Kuņpagrama was a suburb of Vaiśālī. H. JACOBI regards Kundapura as only an insignificant place and believes that the sovereign of it could at best have been only a petty chief.The identification of Koţiggāma with Kundapura seems to be doubtful, and both seem to be independent villages.
A.F.R. HOERNLE” has clearly shown that Vaiśāli is the birthplace of Mahāvīra. Vāniyagāma was another name of the well-known city of Vaišālī, the capital of the Lichchhavi country. This city, commonly called Vaiśāli, occupicd a very extended area, which included within its circuit, besides Veśāli proper, several other places such as Vāniyagāma and Kundagāma. They still exist as villages called Bāniyā and Basukunda.
The identification of Vaisali with the group of remains associated with the village of Basāșh in Muzaffarpur District, some forty km. to the north of Patna, is conclusively proved by the survival of the ancient name with only slight modifi1. SRE, XXII, pp. x-xiii. :. English translation of Urasagedusa (Bibliotheca Indica Scrics. Cal.
cutta, 1939),
