We have traced the connection of Mahavira's family not out of mere curiosity, which indiscriminately collects all historical facts however insignificant in themselves, but for the reason that the knowledge of this connection enables us to understand how Mahavira came to obtain his success. By birth he as well as Buddha was a member of a feudal aristocracy similar to that of the Yadavas in the legends about Krishna, or that of the Rajpoots of the present day. In feudal societies family ties are very strong and long remembered . Now we know for certain that Buddha at least addressed himself chiefly to the members of the aristocracy, that the Gainas originally preferred the Kshatriyas to the Brahmans . It is evident that both Mahavira and Buddha have made use of the interest and support of their families to propagate their order. Their prevalence over other rivals was certainly due in some degree to their connection with the chief families of the country.

Through his mother Mahavira was related to the ruling dynasty in Magadha; for Ketaka's daughter Kellana was married to Seniya Bimbhisara or Bimbisara, king of Magadha, and residing in Ragagriha. He is praised by the Gainas and Buddhists, as the friend and patron of both

[paragraph continues] Mahavira and Buddha. But Kunika or, as the Buddhists call him, Agatasatru , his son by Kellana, the Videhan lady, showed no favour to the Buddhists in the earlier part of his reign; only eight years before Buddha's death he became his patron. We should go wrong in believing him to have sincerely been converted. For a man who avowedly murdered his father , and waged war against his grandfather , is not likely to have cared much about theology. His real motive in changing his religious policy we may easily guess. He planned to add Videha to his dominions, just as his father had added Anga to his kingdom of Magadha; he therefore built the fort at Pataligrama , in order not to repel but subdue the Vaggians or Vrigis, a tribe of Videha, and at last fixed a quarrel on the king of Vaisali, his grandfather. As the latter was the maternal uncle of Mahavira, Agatasatru, by attacking this patron of the Gainas, lost in some degree their sympathy. Now he resolved on siding with their rivals, the Buddhists, whom he formerly had persecuted as friends of his father's, whom, as has been said above, he finally put to death. We know that Agatasatru succeeded in conquering Vaisali, and that he laid the foundation of the empire of the Nandas and Mauryas. With the extension of the limits of the empire of Magadha a new field was opened to both religions, over which they spread with great rapidity. It was probably this auspicious political conjuncture to which Gainism and Buddhism chiefly owed their success, while many similar sects attained only a local and temporal importance.