Vaishali

City and region in northern Bihar; the
region’s western border is the Gandaki
River, and its southern border the
Ganges river. Although now the region
is extremely backward, at the time of
the Buddha, Vaishali was one of the
largest cities in India and a center of
intellectual culture of the time. Vaishali
is famous as the birthplace of Mahavira.
He was the last of the Jain tirthankars,
the founding figures in the Jain religious
tradition. Tradition also holds Vaishali
as the site of the second Buddhist
council, convened one hundred years
after the death of the Buddha (ca. 386
B.C.E.), at which the Buddhist community
split between the Sthaviravadins and
the Mahasanghikas.