Part 1 - Founding of Vesali

Long time ago, the Chief Queen of King of Bārāṇasī conceived a child. The Queen brought this news to the King and he appointed sufficient number of maids of honour to attend on the Queen for the duration of her pregnancy. The Queen lived with ease and comfort, carefully tending the embryo in her womb, and entered the maternity chamber in due time of time.

It is taken to be a natural fact that ladies of high social status, enjoying the fruits of past meritorious deeds, usually give birth to children at early dawn of the morning.

The Queen, being one of such ladies of elite class, gave birth at early dawn, to a lump of flesh as red as hibiscus rosa sinensis flower or lac. The queen thought to herself: “The king would surely remark: ‘Other queens give birth to children who resemble golden statues; but this Chief Queen of mine gave birth to a lump of flesh’ and I shall fall down in disgrace before the King.” Wishing to avoid disgrace of losing favour and dignity, she had the lump of flesh put into a cup covered by another cup and caused it to be thrown into the current of the river Ganges.

Miraculous events took place, the moment the cup containing the lump of flesh left the human hands, it was taken charge by the devas who placed it securely in the cup, a gold plate, on which were inscribed in vermillion the words: “These are the sons born of the Chief Queen of the King of Bārāṇasī.” Protected by the guardian devas, the cup floated along smoothly with the current, undisturbed by billows and swelling tides.

At that time, a hermit was residing close by the river Ganges depending on a village of cowherds for alms-food. When he went to the river early one morning, he saw a cup floating down the stream and recovered it as an object discarded by someone up stream. He saw the royal insignia stamped on the covering cup and discovered the gold lettered plate and the lump of flesh on opening the cup. As soon as the hermit saw the lump of flesh, he opined that the the lump of flesh must be in embryo stage since it raised no foul odour. He brought it to his hut and kept it in a clean corner.

After a lapse of fifteen days, the lump of flesh was seen to have divided into two separate units. The hermit took greater care of the object on seeing these strange developments. In another fortnight’s time, each lump was found to have bulged in five places where the head, two arms and two legs would appear. The hermit attended to them with greater care than before. In another fifteen days time, one was transformed into a boy with golden body and the other into a girl with a golden body.

The love developed by the hermit for the infant boy and girl was so intense that it was like that of a parent for his own offsprings. The two thumbs of the hermit turned into fountains from which milk gushed out. From then onwards, the hermit received gruel cooked with milk from the village of the cowherds (by virtue of the babies' merit). The hermit ate the solid portion of gruel and fed the babies with the fluid that remained.

Whatever went inside their bodies could be seen like objects going through a glass vessel. They were therefore named ‘Licchavi’^[1] after their soft, delicate, thin skin.

Having to attend to the babies, the hermit could go to the village for alms-round only very late in the morning and he had to return to his hermitage in a hurry. When the villagers came to know about his worries, they addressed the hermit: “Venerable sir, looking after the babies is a great hindrance to the observance of the precepts and incumbent on recluses. May you hand the babies over to our care. We will relieve you of the burden of looking after them, then you could attend to your Dhamma practice without any obstruction.” The hermit agreed to their request, saying: “Yes, you may.”

On the following day, the villagers made the roads smooth, level and clean, scattered flowers on it and after planting streamers and banners on the sides of the road, gathered at the hermitage playing various kinds of musical instruments, to receive the children from the hermit. The hermit then gave them words of advice: “Lay devotees, these babies are of great power and glory (because of their great accumulation of past merits). Bring them up with much care, attention and heed till they come of age; and arrange for their matrimonial ceremony when they come of age. Go to the King of Bārāṇasī and having paid him tributes of milk, curds, ghee, butter milk, butter (five kinds of produce of the cow, gorasa), make a request to him to grant you some land for the founding of a city. Then having rounded the city, appoint this young man your king, holding the coronation ceremony in the new city.” With this advice the hermit handed over the babies to the care of the villagers. After giving him the promise to follow his advice, the villagers took away the babies and brought them up in accordance with the instructions given by the hermit.

When they grew up, they played together with the children of the cowherds. But whenever there was dispute while at play, they beat and kicked their playmates. When the parents saw their children crying, they asked them why they were crying. The children would reply: “The two orphans, cared for by the hermit, beat and kicked us.” Even the adopted parents of the two children, along with other villagers, rebuked them, making remarks, such as: “These two children bully our children; they are too troublesome. We should not gratify them; we should avoid the pair of brother and sister.” Ever since that time, the region measuring thirty yojanas where the cowherds village was situated was known as ‘Vajjī country.’^[2]

In due time, the cowherds approached the king, as instructed by the hermit, with offerings consisting of five ‘gorasa’ and requested for the allotment of a place and founded a city there. As the boy had reached the age of sixteen, he was crowned as king of the region. This was followed by a matrimonial ceremony in honour of the two youths. The people of the region agreed then to make a ruling that, no woman from other place should be made their queen, and none of their women should be given away in marriage to those outside of their country.

The crowned King and the Queen produced their offsprings in due time, the Queen giving birth to a pair of twins, one male and female for the first time. The Queen gave birth to twins in like manner for sixteen times in all. When those children came of age, they, in turn, gave birth to twins for sixteen times each.

The population of the city grew rapidly, so much so, that there was no longer sufficient land in the city to accommodate all the princes and princesses with their palaces, pleasure parks and their large retinues. Therefore, the city had to be extended by one gāvuta each on all four sides, entailing the construction of a second walling to enclose the whole city.

After a long time, the growth of the city, in like manner, demanded further extension to meet the requirements of the increasing number of royal families. As before, it was extended again by one gāvuta each on all four sides with the construction of another walling round the entire city. As years rolled by, the city had to be extended again by one gāvuta on all four sides in the same way for the third time. Thus the city grew and flourished with the march of time. It came to be known far and wide as the city of Vesali, throughout the southern sphere of the universe, Jambudipa.

This section gives an account of the origin of the nomenclatures, such as Licchavi Kings, the Vajji country and the City of Vesali (as given in the Khuddakapattha Commentary and Sarattha dipani tika).

End of founding of the city of Vesali.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Licchavī, derived from Nicchaī, Ni=soft, thin; Chavi=having skin, one having delicate thin skin. Ni is changed into Li to form Licchavī.

[2]:

Based on the words uttered by the villagers including the foster parents of the two children cared for by the hermit, namely, Vajjetabba Ime = we should avoid these two, the brother and sister. The region, measuring thirty yojanas came to be known as Vajji country.