From Pāvā, the Buddha and his followers went to Kusinārā, and on the way they crossed two rivers, the first one being named Kakutthā in Pali and Kukustā in Sanskrit, and the second one being the Hiraññavatī which separated the two Mallaka republics.

The Mallakas of Pāvā were the first ones to arrive with an army to Kusinārā, and they put forth their claim to the relics in rude and hostile terms.

In the end, each Malla republic obtained a share of the Buddha's relics and built their own stūpas and gave their own feasts to commemorate this event.

[1][4] After the death of the 24th Jain Tīrthaṅkara, Mahāvīra, the Mallakas and the Licchavikas jointly instituted a festival of lights to commemorate his passing.

There were nevertheless occasional tensions between Licchavi and Magadha, such as the competition at the Mallaka capital of Kusinārā over acquiring the relics of the Buddha after his death.

After the failure of this rebellion, Vehalla sought refuge at his grandfather's place in the Licchavika and Vajjika capital of Vesālī, following which Ajātasattu repeatedly attempted to negotiate with the Licchavikas-Vajjikas.

Ajātasattu's hostility towards the Vajjika League was also the result of the differing forms of political organisation between Magadha and the Vajjika League, with the former being monarchical and the latter being republican, not unlike the opposition of the ancient Greek kingdom of Sparta to the democratic form of government in Athens, and the hostilities between the ancient Macedonian king Philip II to the Athenian and Theban republics.

The military forces of the Vajjika League were initially too strong for Ajātasattu to be successful against them, and it required him having recourse to diplomacy and intrigues over the span of a decade to finally defeat the Vajjika League by 468 BCE and annex its territories, including Licchavi, Videha and Nāya, to the kingdom of Magadha.

The Mallakas also became part of Ajātasattu's Māgadhī empire, although they were allowed a limited degree of autonomy in terms of their internal administration, and they stopped existing as a republican tribe when the Maurya dynasty ruled Magadha or shortly after.