Tribes in Ancient India c61.s2.39

c61.s2.39

In accounts in the Buddhist books, whether Pāli or Sanskrit, Vaiśālī is represented as a rich and prosperous town.² For example, in the *Lalitavistara* we are told that some of the gods of the Tuṣita heaven, in advancing the claims of Vaiśālī for the honour of being the Buddha’s birthplace, said, ‘This great city of Vaiśālī is prosperous and proud, happy and rich with abundant food, charming and delightful, crowded with many and various peoples, adorned with buildings of every description, with storeyed mansions, buildings with towers, and palaces, with noble gateways and charming with beds of flowers in her numerous gardens and groves. This city, resembling the city of the gods, is indeed fit for the birth of the Bodhisattva.’³