________________
There are some signs of an ancient pond or lake there which might have been called Kṣatriya-kunda. Close to it, there is a piece of land which is looked upon as a-halya, i.e., where the plough has never been used; and there is a belief among the local people that some great person was born there in ancient times. For this reason it is looked upon as a holy spot; and a lamp is lit up in Divālī, i.e., the day of the nirvana of Mahāvira.
Taking into consideration all these points, scholars have accepted that locality as the birth place of Mahāvira; and the Government of Bihar, guided by this very evidence took possession of it and had a compound put for it. A marble tablet is erected there on a lotus-shaped pedestal. Eight gathās in Ardha-Magadhi, along with their translation in Hindi have been inscribed on it. They purport to say that this is the spot where revered Mahavira was born and from where he adopted renunciation after spending his kumāra-kāla of thirty years. It is also specified in the inscription that this monument was inaugurated by Shri Rajendra Prasada, President of India, in person, in the Vikrama samvat 2012, when 2555 years had elapsed after the birth of Mahavira.
Close to this Mahāvira Memorial, on a piece of land, adjecent to the ancient Kṣatriya-kunda, a magnificent building is erected through the donation of Sahu Shanti Prasadji, and there is established the Research Institute of Prakrit, Jainology and Ahimsa by the Government of Bihar. This Institute was started in 1956 at Muzaffarpur under the Directorship of Dr. Hiralal Jain. It is through him that the Mahāvīra Memorial was got erected in Vaiśāli and construction of the building was started.
There remians a doubt about our conclusion on the location of Vaiśāli. Some of our coreligionists feel that Vaiśāli was not in Videha but in the Sindhu-deśa. Even in the Mahāpurāņu of Puspadanta (5, 5) it is found stated:
सिंधु-वसइ वइसालि-पुरवरि ।
Jain Education International
26
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
