The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c18.28

v1.c18.28

The capital of Videha, Vesāli or Vaiçālī¹, was without doubt one of the most flourishing towns of India about 500 years before the beginning of our era. The government, which was republican, or perhaps rather oligarchical, was entrusted to the princely family of the Licchavis, who are often mentioned in Buddhist and Jain writings, and who were certainly mightier at that time than at a later date, when an author² remarks that they 'lived by assuming the title of king (*rājan*).' Just outside Vaiçālī lay the suburb Kuṇḍagrāma—probably surviving in the modern village of Basukuṇḍ—and here lived a wealthy nobleman, Siddhārtha, head of a certain warrior-clan called the Jñātrikas. This Siddhārtha was married to the princess Triçalā, sister of Ceṭaka, the most eminent amongst the Licchavi princes, and ruler of Vaiçālī. To them were born, according to the tradition, one daughter and two sons, the younger of whom was called Vardhamāna, the future Mahāvīra. Through the Licchavis Siddhārtha became the relative of a very powerful monarch; for king Bimbisāra or Çreṇika of Magadha, the patron of Buddha and the mightiest ruler of Eastern India, had married Chellanā, daughter of Ceṭaka; and she was mother of Ajātaçatru or Kūṇika, who murdered his father eight years before the death of Buddha, and ascended the blood-stained throne of Magadha.