The ancient city of Vaishali is believed to have been founded by the Raja Vishal, referred to in the epics as a great ruler. Vaishali has been immensely referred in the early Buddhist and Jain chronicles apart from the Puranas. The life of the Buddha is deeply connected with the activities of the Licchavis of Vaishali. Early Buddhist texts mention that the Buddha had rested at Vaishali on his last journey before attaining the Parinirvana at Kushinagara. It was from the existing remains at Kolhua village along with the ones at Besarh, that Cunningham could identify the ancient town of Vaishali. The vestiges of the rule of Asoka can still be traced in the ancient land, which though does not retain a single soul who could possibly trace his lineage correctly to the ancient Licchavis. Vaishali today is the name of a district in Bihar state, having with no proper town as such named as Vaishali.

The ancient citizens of Vaishali are learnt to have been highly cultured and intellectually prosperous. At a time when of the main sixteen Mahajanapadas, the power of the monarch of Magadha was growing in power, the people of Vaishali still clung to the rule of the republican form, with elected chiefs taking decisions on matters of state policy including war and peace. Several interesting stories from the ancient days have survived including the one of the maiden  Amrapali – who was the chief court dancer of Vaishali, and who chose to follow in the footsteps of the Buddha. Amrapali was the owner of a large garden of mangoes near the town of Vaishali, and welcomed the Buddha in the garden during the stay in Vaishali. The old Bollywood movie Amrapali with actress Vyajanthi Mala as Amrapali and actor Sunil Dutt as Ajatasatru, tried to recreate the times for the modern viewer. The archaeological remains are very few, but are nevertheless valuable in tracing some of the major sites of historical activity near Vaishali.

To be continued...