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TRIBES IN ANCIENT INDIA a Jñātri Ksatriya of the Kāśyapa gotra, as we read in the Kalpasūtra. There are reasons to believe that Mahāvira was a native of a suburb of Vaiśālī. That the Licchavis were looked upon as persons of high pedigree appears from a passage in another Jaina work, the Sūtrakytānga, where we read of the 'renowned gotra' (family) of the Licchavis.
The Licchavis were Ksatriyas of the Vāśistha gotra, and were addressed as ‘Vāśisthas' by the Buddha (Mahāvastu-Avadāna, ed. Senart, Vol. I, p. 283, and elsewhere) and by Maudgalāyana, one of the pillars of the Buddhist Church (Rockhill, Life of the Buddha, pp. 97ff.). Further, the Jaina sacred works state that the Ksatriyāņi Trisalā, mother of Mahāvīra, and sister of Cetaka, one of the kings of Vaiśālī, belonged to the Vāśistha gotra.
In the Nepal Vamśāvalī, the Licchavis are allotted to the Suryavamsa or solar race of the Ksatriyas. This is quite in agreement with the fact elicited from the Buddhist records that they were Vāśisthas by gotra, for we know from the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa that the gotra or pravara (family) of a Kşatriya is the same as that of his purohita or family priest.5 Sir R. G. Bhandarkar also points out that the gotra of a Brāhmaṇa 'could be assumed for sacrificial purposes by a Kșatriya, for, according to Aśvalāyana (Sr. S., XII, 15), the gotra and the ancestors of the Ksatriyas invoked are those of their priests or chaplains, and the only Rși ancestors that all the Ksatriyas have, are Mānava, Aila and Paurūravasa. The names of these do not distinguish one Ksatriya family from another, and to answer the purposes of such a distinction, the gotra and ancestors of the priest are assumed ' The Vāśistha gotra was, therefore, the gotra of their family priest, and we know that the Vāśisthas were the family priests of the kings of the solar race, especially of the Iksvākus. In this connection it is interesting to note Prof. Jacobi's observation: ‘According to the Jainas, the Licchavis and Mallakis? were the chiefs of Kāši and Košala. They seem to have succeeded the Aikşvākas who ruled there in the times
1 Kalpasūtra, pp. x-xii. 2 Jacobi, Jaina Sūtras, Part II, S.B.E., Vol. XLV, p. 321.
3 S.B.E., Vol. XXII, p. xii. See Jacobi, Jaina Sūtras, S.B.E., Vol. XXII, p. 193 (Āyārānga-sūtra, 11.15.15). -
4 Indian Antiquary, Vol. XXXVII, p. 79.
Aitareya Brāhmana, Ch. 34, Kānda 7, verse 25. 6 Sir R. G. Bhandarkar, Vaisnavism, Saivism. and minor Religious Systems, p. 12.
7 The kinship of Licchavis and Mallas is confirmed by the Mahaparinioana Suttanta (Buddhist Suttas, S.B.E., Vol. XI, pp. 121-2), and the Sangiti s a the Dīgha Nikāya (Dialogues of the Buddha, Pt. III, p. 202), where the Mark likewise addressed as Vāsetthas' (=Vāśisthas).
