________________ 80 Homage to Vaisali basis for his operations; Buddha prophesied that it would be the chief city of Aryavarta; and so it grew-grew into Pataliputra, the capital of India, for well nigh eight hundred years, the centre of its imperial unity. For over eight years the war was fought. Vaisali suffered, was torn by disunion; its democrats argued incessantly; they could keep no secrets. Ultimately Vaisali fell. Ajatasatru obtained mastery of Eastern India. Magadha was placed on the path of all-Indian conquest. Though Vaisali was included in Magadba, it continued to be a powerful city. Eight hundred years later, Chandragupta, the founder of the Gupta empire, takes pride in marrying the daughter of the Licchavis, and his son Samudragupta, the great conqueror, throughout life took pride in being a daughter's son of Vaisali's proud race. Over a thousand years, Vaisali was a mighty city. II Vaisali was not merely the home of wealth, power and beauty; it was also rich in learning and high aspirations. Here in Kundagrama, a suburb of Vaisali, was born Vardhamana Mahavira, the founder of Jainism; be spent twelve rainy seasons of his ascetic life here. The dust of Vaisali was also hallowed by the footprints of Buddha, Early in life he lived here, practising austerities in the asrama of Alara Kalama, a sage. Many of his Immortal discourses were delivered in its mango-groves or in the adjoining Mahavana ("Great Forest). Buddha and Mabavira have been beacon lights to struggling humanity for twenty-five hundred years. They had something which we all have but they had it in an ample measure, ampler than has been given to the best of us. Why are their lives a message to every age? Why have these two become symbols of men's redemption ? Mabavira was the son of Siddbartha, a wealthy nobleman of Vaisali, the head of the republican tribe of the Jnatss. His mother, Trigala, was the sister of Vaisali's chief Cetaka, related even to the powerful Bimbisara of Magadha. He was married, bad a daughter, and lived a householder's life till he was thirty. Then a flame of mighty aspiration rose in him till he was consumed by it. Similarly, Buddha was the crown-prince of Kapilavastu, loved for his heauty, admired for his virtues. He also had a wife and a son and the prospect of kingship. He too, was caught up in the flame of a mighty aspiration, and, like Amrapali, millions in succeeding generations bave lighted the fires of their little aspirations from this flame.
