Vaishali, on the western edge of the Mithila region, was the seat of the Licchavi republic and the wider Vajji confederacy — often called one of the world’s earliest experiments in republican government, the order into which Videha was drawn after its monarchy. The Buddha preached here many times and announced his coming parinirvana at Vaishali; Mahavira too is linked to its environs.
At Kolhua stands one of Ashoka’s lion pillars, beside a brick stupa and the Ramkund tank — an evocative reminder of the antiquity that underlies Mithila’s story.