Tribes in Ancient India c61.s3.23

c61.s3.23

Nor were the fine arts neglected. Artisans such as tailors, goldsmiths and jewellers must have been much in demand in the city of Vaiśālī to furnish the gay robes of the ‘seven thousand seven hundred and seven’ rājās or nobles. The art of architecture also was much developed in Vaiśālī; the magnificent palaces of the Licchavis are spoken of in the *Lalitavistara*.⁵ They were equally enthusiastic in the building of temples, shrines, and monasteries for the Bhikkhus; and we are told that the Bhikkhus themselves superintended the construction of these buildings for the Order. The Licchavis of Vaiśālī built many *caityas* or shrines inside and outside their great city, and we have already seen with what great liberality they gave the best among them to the Buddha and the Buddhist Church. That these *caityas* were beautiful and fine buildings, where people might wish to dwell indefinitely, was the expressed opinion of the Buddha, as we see from a passage in the *Dīgha Nikāya*.¹