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TRIBES IN ANCIENT INDIA Dr. Hoernle says that Vaiśālī, one of the settlements of the Jñātrkas, was an oligarchic republic, the government of which was 'vested in a senate composed of the heads of the resident Ksatriya clans and presided over by an officer who had the title of king and was assisted by a Viceroy and a Commander-in-chief'.1 Mrs. S. Stevenson says that the government of Vaiśālī seems to have resembled that of a Greek State.2
In the early sixth century B.C., the chief of the Ksatriya Nātha clan was Siddhārtha who married Trišalā, sister of Cetaka, the most eminent among the Licchavi princes. Siddhārtha and Trisalā were the parents of Mahāvīra, who lived from approximately 570-500 B.C. (See B. C. Law, Mahāvīra: His Life and Teachings, p. 53). Of Siddhārtha Dr. Hoernle says: "Though, as may be expected, the Sacred Books of the Jains speak of him in exaggerated terms, they do not, I believe, ever designate him as “the king of Kundapura or Kundagāma”; on the contrary, he is, as a rule, only called the Khattiya Siddhattha (Siddhatthe Khattiye) and only exceptionally he is referred to simply as King Siddhattha. This is perfectly consistent with his position as the chief of the Kshatriyas of Kollāga. Accordingly, Mahāvīra himself was born in Kollāga and naturally when he assumed the monk's vocation, he retired to the Cheïya of his own clan, called Duïpalāsa and situated in the neighbourhood of his native place, Kollāga.' 3 Mahāvīra, on renouncing the world, probably first joined Pārsva's sect of which, however, he soon became a reformer and chief himself.4
A detailed sketch of the life and work of Mahāvīra would fill a volume and is beyond the scope of the present treatise. We may, however, mention the fact that it was Mahāvīra who brought the Jñātrkas into intimate touch with the neighbouring communities of eastern India and developed a religion which is still professed by millions of Indians. Another celebrity of the Jñātrka clan was Ananda, a staunch follower of Mahāvīra. The story of Ananda and his wife Sivanandā is related in the Uvāsagadasão.8
1 Uvāsagadasão, Ed. Hoernle, Vol. II, p. 6. 2 Heart of Jainism, p. 22. 3 Uvāsagadasão, Vol. II, pp. 5-6.
4 Ibid., p. 6. 5 For an account of Mahāvīra, see B. C. Law: Mahāvīra: His Life and Teachings.
6 Vol. II, tr. pp. 7-9.
