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212 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
material near a port on the Ganges over which a condominium was exercised by Ajātaśatru and his northern neighbours. . The preliminaries to the struggle between Magadha and Vaišāli are described in several Pāli texts. In the Mahāvagga it is related that Sunidha and Vassakāra, two ministers of Magadba, were building a fort at Pāțaligrāma in order to repel the Vajjis (Vrijis). The Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta says : "The Blessed One was once dwelling in Rāja gaha on the hill called the Valture's Peak. Now at that time Ajātasattu Vedehiputta, the king of Magadha, was desirous of attacking the Vajjians; and he said to himself, 'I will root out these Vajjians, mighty and -powerful though they be, I will destroy these Vajjians, I will bring these Vajjians to utter ruin”.
"So he spake to the Brāhmaṇa Vassakāra, the prime minister of Magadha, and said, 'Come now, Brāhmaṇa, do you go to the Blessed One, and....tell him that Ajātasattu... has resolved, 'I will root out these Vajjians'. Vassakāra hearkened to the words of the king...” (and delivered to the Buddha the message even as the king had commanded).
In the Nirayāvali Sūtra (Nirayāvaliyā-Sutta) it is related that when Kūņika (Ajātasatru) prepared to attack Chetaka of Vaišāli the latter called together the eighteen Ganarājas? of Kāsi and Kosala, together with the Lichchhavis and Mallakis, and asked them whether they would satisfy Kūņika's demands, or go to war with him. The good relations subsisting between Kosala and Vaišāli are referred to in the Majjhima Nikāya. There is thus no reason to doubt the authenticity of the Jaina statement Negarding the alliance between Kāsi-Kosala on the one
2 3
SBE, XI, pp. 1-5; XVII. 101 ; Gradual Sayings IV. 11. etc. Chiefs of republican clans. Vol. II, p. 101.
