Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/60

 The ambition of Ajatasatru, not satisfied with the humiliation of Kosala, next induced him to undertake the conquest of the country to the north of the Ganges, now known as Tirhut, in which the Lichchhavi clan, famous in Buddhist legend, then occupied a prominent position. The invasion was successful; the Lichchhavi capital, Vaisali, was occupied, and Ajatasatru became master of his maternal grandfather's territory. It is probable that the invader carried his victorious arms to their natural limit, the foot of the mountains, and that from this time the whole region between the Ganges and the Himalaya became subject, more or less directly, to the suzerainty of Magadha.

The victor erected a fortress at the village of Patali on the bank of the Ganges to curb his Lichchhavi opponents. The foundations of a city nestling under the shelter of the fortress were laid by his grandson Udaya. The city so founded was known variously as Kusumapura, Pushpapura, or Pataliputra, and rapidly developed in size and magnificence, until, under the Maurya dynasty, it became the capital, not only of Magadha, but of India.

Buddha, as has been mentioned above, died early in the reign of Ajatasatru. Shortly before his death, Kapilavastu, his ancestral home, was captured by Virudhaka, King of Kosala, who is alleged to have perpetrated a ferocious massacre of the Sakya clan to which Buddha belonged. The story is so thickly encrusted with miraculous legend that the details of the event cannot be ascertained, but the coating of miracle