________________ Vaisali and Gautama Buddha 313 came to be known as Vajji apd the capital city founded by them as Vesali, for, as the family grew rapidly, the city was again and again made larger and still larger. The Ceylopese Buddhist work, Pujavaliya, also gives a similar account. In Chapter XLVII of Valmiki's Ramayana we are told that the city of Vaisali, called Vissala, was founded by Visala, a son of king Iksvaku and the Apsara Alambusa. The Visnupurana, however, makes Visala, a son of Trinabindu by Alambusa. Whatever may be the truth in connecting Visala with Visala, in the very suggestion that Vaigali was known as Visala we get an idea of the extensive area of the city of Vaisali, which has also been referred to in the above account given by Buddhaghosa. In Hiuen Tsang we get a further support for the largeness of the city of Vaisali, nay, he actually gives a measurement of it. He says the foundations of the old city of Vaisali were sixty or seventy li in circuit and the palace city (i. e., the walled part of the city) was four or five li in circuit. In the Ekapanna Jataka we are told, "At the time of Buddha the city of Vesali was encompassed by three walls at a distance of a 'gavyuta from one another and that at three places there were gates with watchtowers and buildings." The Tibetan Dulva also gives an account of Vaisali. It says, "There were three districts in Vaigali. In the first district were seven thousand houses with golden towers, in the middle district fourteen thousand houses with silver towers, and in the last district were twenty-one thousand houses with copper towers ; in these lived the upper, the middle and lower classes according to their positions." Hoernle in his English translation of Uvasagadasao identifies these three districts mentioned in the Dulva with Vesali proper, Kundapura and Vaniyagama. And, as Mrs. Sinclair Stevenson would have us believe, these three represented the priestly (Brabmana)the warrior (Ksatriya) and the commercial (Baniya) communities. From what has already been said, it is reasonable to believe that, at least in the time of Buddha, Vaisali was a large and flourishing city, fortified by walls with watch-gates. It was the capital of the strong clan of the Samvajjis. The populace which consisted mostly of the Licchavis was rich and prosperous with ample resources in food and luxuries. The Licchavis themselves, a united strong Ksatriya clan of the then India, were 40
