________________ Vaisali the Birthplace of Lord Mahavira 257 10. F. E. Pargiter in his Ancient Indian Historical Tradition gives an account of the dynastic history of pre-historic Vaisali which later turned to be the glorious capital of the ancient Licchavi republic. 11. Mr. L. S. S. O'Malley, I. C. S., in Muzaffarpur District Gazetteer, has accepted Basalh as the site of Vaisali, the ancient Liccbavi capital. 12. The Imperial Gazetteer of India (New Edn., Oxford, 1908) also bas accepted the identification of Vaisali with modern Basalh (Vol. 7 p. 94 and Vol. 24 pp. 294-95). 13. The writer in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th edition, Vol. 12, p. 868 (London, 1929) says: "Vardhamana Mahavira, their (i. e., the Jaios') last leader, is identifiable on strong grounds with Nigantha Nata-putta (Nirgrantha of the Jnatrika clan) of the Buddhist Pitakas and Buddha's contemporary. Mahavira is said to have been a Ksatriya (like all the rest of the 24 Jins) of Vaisali, 27m. north of Patna." 14. The writers in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics (e. g., Jacobi and V. A. Smith, both already quoted in this article) also hold that Mahavira belonged to Vaisali. Let us now consider the views of some important Indian scholars. 15. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan in his Indian Philosophy Vol. I says that Vardhamana was born at Vaisali about 599 B. C. and that the Nataputta of Pali Buddhist literatore is Vardhamapa. 16. Dr. Surendranath Dasgupta, in his A History of Indian Philosophy, Vol. I, p. 173 (Cambridge, 1922) says : "Mabavira, the last prophet of the Jains, was a Ksatriya of the jnata clan and a native of Vaisali (modern Basash), 27 miles north of Patna. He was the second son of Siddbartha and Trisala." 17. Dr. B. C. Law also holds that Mabavira belonged to Vaisali (See his Tribes in Ancient India, Vaisali and Mahavira in Jaina Antiquary, and numerous other articles). 18. Si Rahula Sankstyayana in his Darsana-Digdarsana, p. 492 (Allahabad, 1944) says that Vardharana Jnatnputra (=Nataputta), the founder of Jainism, was one of the teachers who flourished in the time of Buddha. He was born in the Jnats clan, a branch of the Licchavis,
