Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c11.41

c11.41

“It would seem,” believes Hoernle, “that the Jaina tradition which represents Kuṇḍapura as a large town, is quite correct, inasmuch as Kuṇḍapura is taken as the equivalent of Vesālī”.⁵ In the *Kalpa Sūtra*,⁶ Kuṇḍapura is described as a city with inner and outer portions (*nagaram abbhiṁtara-bāhiriyam*),⁷ i.e., “a large city with suburbs.” In Hoernle’s opinion, this is evidently a description of Vesālī itself.⁸ He does not agree with Jacobi in taking Kuṇḍagāma as a mere “halting place of caravans.” He further postulates that Veśālī consisted of three parts and that it was inhabited by the Brāhmaṇas, Kṣatriyas and Vaiśyas.⁹ Hoernle may be right in taking Kuṇḍagāma (? modern Basukuṇḍ)¹⁰ to refer to the city of Vesālī as a whole, but only if we put implicit faith in the Jainas’ claim to the greatness and prosperity of Kuṇḍagāma. This, however, does not appear to be the case. The theory of three castes inhabiting three separate parts of Vesālī was later repeated by Mrs. Sinclair Stevenson.¹¹ But there is no positive statement in the texts to this effect. No doubt all these castes were living in Vesālī but there is no reason to believe that each inhabited separate parts of it, except of course that this seems to have been the case in some other ancient Indian cities.¹²