________________ Homage to Vaisali the title of raja, which must have meant something like the Roman congul, or the Greek archon. We hear nowhere of such a triumvirate ag bore corresponding office among tho Licchavis, nor of such acts of kingly sovereignty as are ascribed to the real kings mentioned above, This gives a brief description of the political form of government which existed in these republican states. It is also true that in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. political conditions were going through a great revolution. Some of thc big independent monarchical states in the neighbourhood of these republics were aspiring to expand into empires. Ajatasatru murdered his father and ascended the throne of Magadha. He carried on a war with the aged king of Kosala. We also read that Ajatasatru conquered the country inhabited by the Licchavis and occupied Vaigali. After that conquest Vaisali ceased to be a republic and the whole region between the Ganges and the Himalayas became subject, more or less directly, to the suzerainty of Magadba. It is well-known and now admitted on all hands that the two great religious prophets, Bhagavan Buddha and Bhagavan Vardhamana Mahavira, had lived at a time when Bimbisara and Ajatasatru ruled in Magadha. The date for the death of Bhagavan Gautama Buddha, according to Dr. Vincent A. Smith, is 487 B.C. Similarly scholars have accepted 527 B.C. as the most commonly quoted date for the death of Mahavira. A section of scholars, however, regards 488 B. C. as the date of Mahavira's death. It is necessary to ascertain the social, political and economic conditions of the people in order to correctly appreciate the teachings of these prophets. Republics were gradually crumbling and empires were being founded. Vardhamana Mahavira was related to Ajatasatru who was a parricide. Greed for power blinded the Ksatriyas, and no sin was considered too great by them in their attempt to get it. The quiet life, which the ordinary people of the republican claps enjoyed under their autonomous states, was being completely disturbed. It was a period when those who happened to be in charge of the affairs of the states began to lose their faith in the values of eternal principles of religion, and the example of these leaders was probably becoming iofectious, and even the ordinary peop.e looked at possession of worldly riches and powers as a worthy end to be achieved in utter disregard of means. No society or community can hope to make any progress if these eternal principles cease to exercise any influence on their activities and transactions. It was at such a critical time in the history of our nation that two great teachers of humanity, Bhagavan Gautama Buddha and Bhagavan
