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TRIBES IN ANCIENT INDIA
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worship' and that 'they were probably trees and barrows.'1 Some of the Caityas, as their names suggest, might have been named after the trees which marked the spots, but it would be going too far to imagine merely from the name that these shrines consisted of trees and nothing else.
As we have seen, Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of the Jains, was a citizen of Vaiśālī. Even before his advent, the faith of which he was the last exponent seems to have been prevalent in Vaiśäli and the surrounding country, in some earlier form. It appears from the Jaina accounts that the religion as fixed and established by Parsvanatha, the 23rd Tirthankara, was followed by some at least of the Kṣatriya peoples of N.E. India, especially amongst the residents of Vaiśāli. We read in the Ayaränga-sutra that Mahavira's parents were 'worshippers of Parsva and followers of the Śramanas'. Similar accounts are given in other Jaina works of the prevalence in the country of a faith which was afterwards developed by Mahāvīra. Śramaņas or wandering ascetics had been in existence ever since the time of the earlier Upanisads, and evidently the Śramaņas that were followed by the parents of Mahavira belonged to one of the numerous sects or classes of Indian ascetics. After Mahavira's time, the number of his followers among the Licchavis appears to have been large, even including some men of the highest position in Vaiśāli, as is seen from the Buddhist books. In the Mahavaggas we read that Siha, a general-in-chief of the Licchavis, was a disciple of Nigantha Nataputta (= Mahāvīra). When the Buddha visited Vaiśāli, Siha wished to see him, having heard reports of his greatness; but Mahavira dissuaded him, pointing out the defects in the doctrines preached by the Buddha. Siha's enthusiasm for the Buddha abated for the time, but was again roused by the discussions of the other Licchavis, so that he finally did pay a visit to the Buddha, who gave him a long discourse on the Buddhist doctrine. Siha was converted to the Buddhist faith. One day he invited the Buddha and the Bhikkhus to take their meal at his house, and procured meat at the market to feed them. But the Jains spread a false report that Siha had killed an ox and made a meal for the 'Samana Gotama', and that the Samana Gotama was knowingly eating the meat of an animal killed for this very
1 Prof. and Mrs. Rhys Davids, Dialogues of the Buddha, Pt. II, p. 110, f.n. 2. See also R. P. Chanda's Mediaeval Sculpture in Eastern India, Cal. Univ. Journal (Arts), Vol. III.
p. 194.
2 Jaina Sutras, Pt. I, Ayaränga-sutra, trsl. H. Jacobi, S.B.E., Vol. XXII, See Vinaya Texts, trsl. Rhys Davids and Oldenberg, S.B.E., Vol. XVII,
pp. 108ff.
