________________ History and Archaeology of Vaisali 437 . Kshattriyas. He seems to have lived in the parental house, till his father died, and his elder brother succeeded to what principality they owned. Then, at the age of thirty, with the consent of the head of his house, he entered the spiritual career, which in India, just as in Europe, offered a field for the ambition of younger sons. In Kollaga, the Naya clan kept up a chaitya or religious establishment, called Duipalasa, which doubtless was similar to those existing in the present day, consisting of a park or garden, enclosing a temple and rows of cells for the accommodation of monks. The Duipalasa chaitya was kept up for the accommodation of the monks of Parsvanath's order, to whom the Naya clan professed allegiance; and Mahavira, on adopting the monk's vocation, would naturally retire to it and join the order of Parsvanatha. But the observances of that order do not seem to have satisfied his notions of stringency, one of the cardinal points of which was absolute nudity, and after a trial of one year, be left it, and discarding his clothes, travelled about North and South Bihar. Here in a long wandering life of 42 years, he succeeded in gathering a considerable following of monks, known as the Nirgranthas, or men who discarded all social bonds, who after Mahavira's death (cir. 490 B. C.) became known as the Jains. Buddhism About the same time, Buddha was engaged in his ministry in the same tract of country. His first visit to Vaisali was in answer to the invitation of the inhabitants, who sent a deputation to him, imploring him to deliver them from a frightful pestilence which was desolating their country. Buddha responded to the [15] call, and coming to Vaisali drove away the plague and made numerous converts. After this, he revisited the city during the fifth year of his ministry, living in the Kutagara or two-storied ball of the Mahavana, a great forest stretching away to the north of Vaisali. It was here that he established the Buddhist order of nuns, reluctantly yielding, at the intercession of his cousin, Ananda, to the request of his widowed mother that women might be admitted to the congregation. To Vaisali again be returned on his journey to Kusinara and to death. The traditional account of this journey states that Buddha travelled leisurely from Pataliputra to Vaisali, halting twice on the way-first at Kotigrama and next at Nadiyagrama; the first of which was probably* at or close to Hajipur and the second in the vicinity of Lalganj. After his . See Vajsali, by V. A. Smith, Journal R. A. S., 1902, pp. 267-288.
