________________ 218 Homage to Vaisali The Mahabharata has some interesting sidelights to throw on Vaisali: Krana-Vasudeva's father's sister's son, Sisupala, King of Cedi (Rewa, Chattisgadh, and C. P.), abducted the Vaisali princess Bhadra, who was one of the wives of Vasudeva (Krsna's father), while she was on her way from Vaisali to Dvaraka, (Mahabharata : 2, 45, 1570). Krsna's cousin, Arjuna, son of another sister of his father, was assisted in the Bharata War by 'Vaisaleyah' Bhoginah', said to be 'Naga' chieftains of Naga clans (Mahabharata : 8, 87X', 4416); but bhoginah' might also be equivalent of 'rajanah'. (Probably the "Naga' princes were called Bhogins' or 'Bhojas' for wearing the Naga emblem-the cobra-bood mark, bhoga'-on their crowns, like Egyptian sovereigns ). Here too The geography of the Mahabharata knows of a Vaisali river, which was a branch or affluent of the Gandaki near Vaisali, (Mahabharata : 13, 25, 1730; cf. also Mahabharata : 1, 35, 1557 and 5, 103 Y, 3630). This river is said to be a sacred one, in 'Gaya' country (in Puranic geography, 'Gaya' and 'Utkala' stand for Bihar (N. and S.) and ChotaNagpur, with Garjat and Surguja States ), counted as a 'second Sarasvati, one of the 'sapta-Sarasvata' group of sacred rivers, a 'tirtha' for 'pitr'worship (as on the Phalgu at Gaya), and as having a shrine of Karavira, the Naga, at Karavira-pura on its banks. It is tempting to identify these place-Dames with Kolhua village, adjacent to Saraiya, on the east bank of Baya river (wrong for 'Gaya'), adjacent to Bakhra (Basarh-Vaisali), all within the ruins of Vaigali-Kolhua containing the Asokan pillar of Vaisali. Possibly Singhia,-the river port and factory of Dutch and British East India Company fame,-on the Gandaki, 12 miles north of Hajipur (Vaisali ruins being 18 miles from it). stands for 'Simbika' or the port of the Simbas, that is of the Licchavis (a synonym in history ); and it seems the term 'Simhika', with its variant 'Himsika', came to be used of 'pirate ships' in ancient India, because of the sway that Licchavi or Simba or Vaisalian (or Vaisravana) mercantile and armed fleet held over the Lower Ganges and the Bay of Bengal right up to Ceylon and other of the its variant of the swarned fleet he 1. Probably the same title 'Bhoja' used by Yadavas had the same origin. It is well known that the Yadavas of the south-west ruled over the Nagas and were, after Kra, overthrown by them. 2. Cf. Kautilya's Arthasatra.
