________________ 258 Homage to Vaisali at Vaisali (modern Basadha, 27 miles north of Patna), the capital of the ancient Vajji republic (Muzaffarpur District in Bihar). Further he says that Vardhamana's father was a member of the republican Senate (GanaSamstha). 19. Dr. V. S. Agrawala, in his Preface to a Hindi brochure entitled "Vaisall' (written by Sri Vijayendra Suri), says that Mabavira was born in the Ksatriya ward of Kundapura which may be identified wita the village Basukunda near Vaisali (in the Muzaffarpur district). 20. Prof. Baladeva Upadhyaya of Baparas Hindu University also believes that Mahavira was born at Ksatriya Kundagrama (Muzaffarpur district). He says that the popular Jaio belief of regarding Licchu-ar (near Kiul Station) as the birthplace of Mabavira is based on wrong notions and should be discarded at once. 21. Dr. G. P. Malalasekara in bis Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, Vol. II, p. 943 (London, 1938) accepts Basaph (Muzaffarpur District) as the ancient Vaisali and says (Vol. I., p. 61) that Mahavira belonged to the Nata (or Naya) clan of Vesali. Let us consider the views of some Jain scholars as well. 22 Mr. Chimanlal J. Shah, M. A., in his Jainism in North India 800 B. C.-A. D. 526, says (pp. 23-24): "Mabavira is believed to have been born of Trisala, near the town of Vaisali, nearly twenty-seven miles north of Patna. His father, Siddhartha, seems to have been a chieftain of Kundagrama village, and bis mother, Princess Trisala, was the sister of the chieftain of Vaisali, the capital of Videba, and was related also to Bimbisara, King of Magadba." 23. Pandita Kalyanavijaya Ji Gani, a famous Jain scholar, has written a life of Sramana Bhagavan Mahavira in which (Introduction, pp. xxv-xxviii) he shows that Mabavira was born at Kundagrama near Vaigali in Videha. 24. Sri Vijayendra Suri, another Jain scholar, has written a brochure in Hindi called "Vaisali,' wherein he gives strong arguments for accepting Kundagrama near Vaisali (Muzaffarpur district) as the real birthplace of the twenty-fourth Tirthankara. Now that Vaisali (or Kundagrama near it) is proved to be the birthplace of Mabavira, the Jain community owes a great duty to the birthplace of its prophet. Indeed there should be some shrine and also
