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THE LICCHAVIS
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Licchayis who were householders and had not accepted the life of Bhikkhus should remain firm followers of their former faith.
From the meagre mention of the Caityas of the Licchavis in the Buddhist books, it is not easy to determine what the principal objects of their worship were; but there is nothing to show that the religious beliefs of the Licchavis were in any way different from the form of faith which obtained in other parts of Northern India. The Vedic religion was still in full vigour in N.E. India, as the references to Vedic sacrifices in the Buddhist books show. We should bear in mind that the country of the Vajjis was the sacred land of Videha, where the great Samrāt Janaka had exercised his sway, and where Yājñavalkya preached the White Yajurveda.
The Caityas mentioned in the Mahāvastu are the Căpāla, Saptāmraka, Bahuputra, Gautama, Kapinahya, and Markatahradatira. In the Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta, we find the following names of Caityas as mentioned by the Buddha: Gotamaka (= Gautama), Sattambaka (= Saptāmraka), Bahuputtaka (= Bahuputra or Bahuputraka), Sārandada, and Cāpāla. The Pātika Suttanta seems to indicate that Vaiśāli was bounded by four shrines: Udena (Udayana) on the east, Gotamaka on the south, Sattamba on the west, and Bahuputta on the north. A passage in the Divyāvadāna also gives a list of the Caityas in almost the same words as the Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta; there also the Buddha is represented as speaking of the beauties of the Caityas called Cāpāla, Saptāmraka, Bahupatraka and Gautama-nyagrodha.2 Bahupatraka is evidently the same as the Bahuputraka of the other texts. Buddhaghosa in his commentary on the Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta explains cetiyāni in the text as Yakkha-cetiyāni, and regarding the Sārandada-caitya where the Buddha preached, he says: 'This was a Vihāra erected on the site of a former shrine of the Yakkha (tree deity) Sārandada.' 3 Hence it is reasonable to assume that the Yakkhas were worshipped in some of the Caityas. The Buddhist books show further that the Vedic gods, Indra and Prajāpati or Brahmā,4 were popular deities in the regions where the Buddha preached; while Kautilya's Arthaśāstra 5 speaks of many gods popularly worshipped, besides the Vedic divinities. Some scholars are of opinion that the Caityas were 'shrines of pre-Buddhistic
1 Dialogues of the Buddha, Pt. III, p. 14. 2 Divyāvadāna, p. 201. 3 Dialogues of the Buddha, Pt. II, p. 80, notes 2 and 3. 4 For Brahmā, see S.N., 122 seq.; Samy., VI, I, 1-3, 10, etc.; M.P.S., VI, 15, etc. 5 Ed. R. Shāma Shāstri, 2nd Ed., p. 244.
