Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c11.33

c11.33

In addition to Kuṇḍagāma, the city of Vesāli is mentioned as the birthplace of Mahāvīra; hence he is sometimes called *Vesālie*.⁷ In Jacobi's opinion “Vaiśālika apparently means a native of Vaiśālī, which would be appropriate to Mahāvīra when Kuṇḍagrāma was a suburb of Vaiśālī, just as a native of Turnham Green may be called a Londoner.”⁸ A Buddhist tradition, quoted by Rockhill, says that “there were three districts in Vaiśālī”.⁹ Hoernle thinks that “there may very well have been Vesāli proper, Kuṇḍapura and Vāṇiyagāma, occupying the South-Eastern, North-Eastern, and Western portions of the area of the total city respectively”.¹ Beyond Kuṇḍapura, the text informs us, and further in a north-easterly direction lay the suburb (*sannivesa*) of Kollāga, which appears to have been also chiefly inhabited by Khattiyas of Mahāvīra’s Nāya clan.² Also a part of their settlement at Kollāga, but lying outside it, was the Nāya-owned³ *Caitya* (*Ceïya*) of Dūīpalāsa.⁴