Historical Geography of Ancient India c8.517

c8.517

Vaiśālī.—Vaiśālī the large city, was the capital of the Licchavis who were a great and powerful people in Eastern India in the 6th century B.C. It is renowned in Indian history as the capital of the Licchavi rājās and the headquarters of the great and powerful Vajjian confederacy. This great city has been identified by Cunningham with the present village of Basarh in the Muzaffarpur district, in Tirhut, as marking the spot where stood Vaiśālī in ancient days (Arch. Surv. Report, Vol. I, pp. 55-56 and Vol. XVI, p. 6). Vivien de Saint Martin has agreed with him. The evidence adduced by Cunningham to arrive at this conclusion was not put forward with much fulness and clearness. Rhys Davids says that the site of Vaiśālī is still to be looked for somewhere in Tirhut (*Buddhist India*, p. 41). Dr. W. Hoey seeks to establish the identity of Vaiśālī with Cherand in the Chapra or Saran district (*J.A.S.B.*, 1900, Vol. LXIX, Pt. I, pp. 78-80, 83). This identification has been proved to be entirely untenable by V. A. Smith in his paper on Vaiśālī (*J.R.A.S.*, 1902, p. 267, n. 3). He has succeeded in establishing that the identification by Cunningham of the village of Basarh with Vaiśālī admits of no doubt. This identity has been proved still more decisively by the Archaeological excavations carried out at the site by Dr. T. Bloch in 1903-4. Bloch excavated a mound called Rājā Viśāl kā garh and only eight trial pits were sunk. Three distinct strata have been found out, the uppermost belonging to the period of Mahomedan occupation of the place, the second at a depth of about 5 ft. from the surface relating to the epoch of the Imperial Guptas, and the third at a still greater depth belonging to an ancient period of no definite date (*A.S.I. Annual Report*, 1903-4, p. 74). The finds in the second stratum are valuable, especially the find in one of the small chambers of a hoard of seven hundred clay seals, evidently used as attachment to letters or other literary documents. They belonged partly to officials, partly to private persons, generally merchants or bankers, but one specimen bearing the figure of liṅga with a triśūla on either side and the legend Amrātakeśvara evidently belonged to a temple (*A.S.I. Annual Report*, 1903-4, p. 74).