2.3 The Lichchhavis of Vaishali

The tribe of Lichchhavis has been mentioned in detail in Jain texts as the mother of Mahavira, Trishala, belonged to the same clan. Trishala was the sister of King Cetaka of Vaishali. The area of Vaishali was close to Kundagrama of Videha, the birthplace of Mahavira. As per historical evidences, the tribe was settled in north Bihar and part of the Terai belt of Nepal. Buddhaghosa in his Paramatthajotika traces origin of Lichchhavi clan from the royal family of Benaras. According to myths, the chief queen of Benares gave birth to a lump of flesh which was put in a box and floated on a river. It was then captured by a hermit who nurtured them until they turned into a pair of boy and girl. Both had a translucent beauty as such they have no skin and therefore the name nicchavi or everything seemed to get adsorbed into them and therefore the name linacchavi. The twins were then adopted by local cowherds. As they grew up, they were given an area to live. Both boy and girl married to each other and had a sixteen pair of sibling twins. Since the area has to be continually enlarged (Visalikata), they came to call it Vesali / Vaishali. Opposite to this description of Buddha Ghosa, the Valmiki Ramayana in its Balkanda (which is a later addition to main text) traces the lineage of Lichchhavis to Visaia, son of the Ikshavaku King of Ayodhaya with Apsara Alambusa. After Visaia, the town was named as Visala and the tribe was referred of the Suryavanshi clan with Vassestha gotra. In Nepali traditions too, the lineage of Lichchhavis is linked with Ikshvakus of Ayodhya and their descent is given via Raghu, Aja, Dashratha, eight other kings and then Lichchhavis [14]. Keeping myths aside, epic Mahabharata mentions Mallas along with other powerful eastern tribes but does not mention Lichchhavis indicating that they as a tribe were still not present till 900-1100 BC. Further, Valmiki Ramayana traces them as 9th generation from Dashratha contrary to Malla who were traced as 2nd generation through his son Lakshmana. It indicates that the Lichchhavis settled in this area after a considerable time gap from the period of settlement of the Mallas, although both migrated from Kosala and therefore had a common Suryavanshi origin with Vassestha gotra. Since Lichchhavis are mentioned in detail in Buddhist and Jain texts, it is clear that the group was settled as a strong force by the 6th century BC. The name which indicates translucent beauty or having no skin only refers to the point that they were of fair Indo-Aryan stock quite different from majority of aboriginal populations living in these areas at that time.

The settlement of Lichchhavis, Vaishali, was very rich in ancient times. It is evident from one event whereby they wanted Buddha to visit their place from the palace of Magadhan King Bimbisara. That time, the area of Vaishali was suffering from widespread plague. In spite of their all efforts, they could not stop it spreading. Looking at the severity, they decided to call Buddha so that his miraculous power diminishes it. The Lichchhavis sent their envoy to call him in Vaishali. King Bimbisara knowing this sent the message that the Lichchhavis should welcome Buddha at the main entrance of their city and he will also follow him till the boundary of his own country. To this, the Lichchhavis agreed. To impress Lichchhavis of his strength and richness, Bimbisara made great arrangements on the way on which Buddha had to travel. When the King reached at the boundary of Magadhan Empire, not only he but Buddha too was impressed by the arrangements of Lichchhavis on the other side. He exclaimed to his monks – ‘you have never seen gods when they go to garden from their city, now see Lichchhavis who are equal to those gods in prosperity and splendor.’

Not only the city but Lichchhavis too impressed Buddha very much. As a result he delivered many of his discourses in their area. He was pleased with their governance so much that he instructed to design Buddhist Sanghas on the model of Lichchhavi assemblies. He even tried to dissuade King Ajatshatru of Magadha (son of Bimbisara) by counting the great qualities of Lichchhavis when he wanted to attack them. The tribe of Lichchhavis was divided into three sections who occupied different geographical locations in the city of Vaishali. As per Mahaparinirvana Sutta and Anguttara Nikaya, the tribe was fond of brilliant colors such as blue, yellow, red and white in their dress. Other than war and sports, some of them were also interested in learning fine arts. It is recorded that some went to distant countries for education. One of the Lichchhavi, named Mahali, went to Takshila to learn shilpa and on returning back he educated many Lichchhavis. They celebrated many festivals in which beating drums, songs and dance were involved. Regarding marriage proposal, similar to other republics, the young Lichchhavis had to approach the assembly to select a suitable bride for him. There were strict rules for it according to which no relations will be made out of Vaishali. The rules further said that the daughter born in the first section can marry only in the first while that born in the second section can marry in the second as well as first and that born in the third section has to marry only in the third. The tribe was very sensitive to female chastity and violation of it was a serious offence. The female could lose her life from his husband.

On religious fronts, the Buddhist texts give references of Indra and Prajapati as popular gods of this area. The Lichchhavis have been also recorded as great followers of both Buddha and Jaina. They participated in their last rites. The tribe received 1/8th of the Buddha’s relics and built stupa over it. Chanakya in Arthshastra, too, mentions about many gods worshipped by the people of this region other than the Vedic deities. As the majority of them turned towards Buddhism and Jainism, they are mentioned as Vratya Kshatriyas in Manusmiriti. For dead persons, the tribe followed different rituals. It included cremation, burial and exposing the corpse to wild animals. Buddha once visited the cemetery of Vaishali and there he was told that some dead bodies are hanged from the tree and some buried in the earth (specifically of those who were killed for wrongdoing) and for some it is left upon the ground so that they may return to their homes, if possible. There were also the dead bodies who were cremated. It seems that the Lichchhavis adopted such system from Dravidians or Vratyas living in the eastern part of India. The same is evident from the funeral hymns of Atharva Veda (XVIII.2, 34) which says ‘they that are buried, and they that are scattered (reap) away, they that are burned and they that are set up (uddhita) – all those fathers, Oh Agni, bring thou to eat the oblation’[15].

On the political front, Lichchhavis were part of the Vajjian confederacy that consisted of total eight tribes, evident from the stories which say that criminals were made to stand for judgment in front of atthakula (eight clans). Chanakya too, describes about the united power of these unions which made them unconquerable. As they followed the republican style of governance, nearly two centuries later at the time of Chandragupta, Chanakya mentions them as republican people living with the title of ‘Raja’ along with Mallaka, Vrijika, Madraka, Kukura, Kuru and Panchala. Culla-kalinga Jataka and Ekapanna Jatka mentions Lichchhavi administration in detail. They mention about 7707 Lichchhavi Rajas indicating that all adults of the clan were part of the ruling assembly. Bhaddasala Jataka mentions about a tank, water of which was used for coronation of new Rajas during their assembly. The coronation ceremony was known as abhiseka –mangala pokkharani (Abhiseka – coronation, mangala – auspicious, pokkhara – tank / pond in Pali). Except Magadhan Empire, the tribe was in good terms with Kosala and Malla except some cases as that seen from the incident of Bandhula Malla. After the Buddha’s death, King Ajatshatru of Magdaha conquered them after a great battle which ran for nearly sixteen years. Though religiously degraded as Vratyas in view of orthodox Brahmins, the tribe retained their social and political importance till Gupta Empire of 4th century AD. It is evident from the stone pillar inscriptions of Allahabad in which King Samudragupta proudly described him as Lichchhavi-dauhitra (son of a daughter of Lichchhavi). In later period, some of the Lichchhavis migrated in Nepal and flourished there.

2.4 Shakyas of Kapilvastu

The tribe is well known due to the birth of Gautam Buddha in the same. The etymology of the word “Shakya” is probably related to the Sanskrit word Sak which means ‘to be able, worthy, possible or practicable’. Some historians have also relate it with tree Sak (Oak) but it lacks justification as the tree does not grow in the Terai belt of Nepal or Basti district (Siddharthnagara) of Uttar Pradesh where Kapilvastu has been traced. The origin of ‘Shakya’ name for them is well recorded in Ambattha Sutta when Buddha debated with Brahmin Ambattha on the superiority of Kshatriyas over Brahmins. According to Buddha, as per traditions prevalent in the tribe, King Okkaka banished his nine children from first queen to give royal power to Jantukumara, son of his favorite other queen. The expelled children included five princesses namely Priya, Supriya, Ananda, Vijitha, Vijithasena and four princes namely Ukkamukha, Karandu, Hastinika and Sinisura [16]. They went towards Himalaya and founded the village of Kapilvastu on the land donated by sage Kapil. As they considered themselves superior races of Kshatriya, the four princes and princesses married among them after giving the title of mother to their elder sister Priya. One day, King Okkaka enquired about them from his minister. When he came to know that they married among them to protect the purity of their blood, he instantly praised their action by saying – ‘Sakya vato bho kumara, paramasakya vato bho rajkumara’. It means ‘The princess are very powerful (sakya); Very powerful indeed (parama-sakya vatabho) are the royal princess’ [17]. Then onwards, eight children and their descendants were known as Sakya in the social and political circles of ancient India. Based on this legend, some historians correlated King Okkaka with famous King Ikshvaku of Ayodhya in whose clan King Rama was born. Though both kings can be different but it can be easily guessed that an attempt has been made by some people to link Buddha with the clan of Rama and followers of both sides silently accepted it to appease each other. Keeping legends aside, historians have traced Shakyas as a warrior Indo-Aryan tribe who migrated and settled in the region of Kapilvastu in the late Vedic period.

By the end of the Vedic period, Ulump, Khomduss, Chatum, Devdah, Medloomp, Bedhajja, Sakkar, Samgram, Shilavati, Kapilvastu and Lumbini emerged as major settlements in the Shakya territory [18]. The village of Khomduss chiefly belonged to the Brahmins who were initially opposed to Buddha but later became his follower and accepted Buddhism. Like Lichchhavis, Shakyas too restricted matrimonial relationships within their tribe only. The mother of Buddha, Mahamaya and Mahaprajapati Gautami belonged to the Shakya clan of village Devdah. Even princesses Yashodhara, married to prince Siddhartha, belonged to the Shakya clan of village Devdah. However after Siddhartha left his home and Yashodhara in search of true wisdom, Shakyas of Devdah started hating him and the differences arose between the villages of Kapilvastu and Devdah. Being extremely proud of their Kshatriya origin, Shakyas never gave respect to Brahmins. It led Brahmin Ambattha to describe them as menials. Unlike Lichchhavis, the tribe paid a heavy price for their belief in blood purity and Shakyas of Kapilvastu were almost devastated by King Vidudabha of Kosala. The story goes like this - Pasenadi was Suryavanshi Kshatriya king of Kosala with capital at Sravasti. He was a prominent follower of Buddha and built many Buddhist monasteries during the lifetime of Buddha. During his conquest, he defeated Shakya republic and asked for one Shakyan girl whom he will marry and make his chief queen. He also promised that her son will be the next king of Kosala.  On receiving the proposal, Shakyas took meeting in their assembly hall at Kapilvastu. The assembly house decided that they will not give their girl even though she will be made chief queen of Kosala. They, instead, decided to give the daughter of Nagmunda who was slave of Mahanaam Shakya, the uncle of Buddha. The slave girl, named Vasavkhattiya, was then married to king Pasenadi as Shakyan girl. From the union, a son was born. He was named Vidudabha and crowned as Prince of Kosala. Once, the prince made a visit to his maternal place at Kapilvastu. There small age children welcomed him. When enquired about the absence of the elders, it was communicated that they were outside for some urgent work. The living arrangement of the prince was done in santhagara hall. After spending some days there, he returned back to Sravasti. However, on the way one of his bodyguards realized that he had forgotten his arms in the hall. The bodyguard returned to collect it. There he saw lady slaves washing the hall with milk. He then heard one lady slave scolding the mother of prince as ‘slave’s daughter’ and cursing herself because she had to wash her son’s used place. The bodyguard informed the matter to prince Vidudabha. After listening it, the prince felt ashamed and enquired about the matter from his father. He became furious to know that Pasenadi was aware of it. He decided to take revenge from his father and the Shakya’s of Kapilvastu. After some period, he successfully displaced Pasenadi with the help of Mallas. He then went behind Shakyas for revenge. He tried to attack Kapilvastu many times but each time Buddha intervened. When Buddha was 80 years old and near to Vaishali and about to declare his mahaparinirvana, Vidudabha moved again towards Kapilvastu. His army surrounded the Shakya republic. He called the head of Shakya gana and demanded apology from their assembly. Shakyas took a meeting and decided that they would not apologize for their actions even though they could not stand in front of Kosalan army. Vidudabha then ordered his army to attack but not to kill the Shakyans who apologize, not to touch women and children and not to kill the persons who run from them. The santhagara in which he stayed during his visit was destroyed. Shakyans who didn’t apologize were killed in masses. The Shakyas of Devdah shook hands with the Koliyas of Ramagrama as the latter also had enmity with the former one on water used for the irrigation. The Koliyas declared Devdah as their new capital. Many of the Shakyas shifted to various other locations deserting the very native place of Buddha. Leftover Shakyas of Kapilvastu fled to village Bedhajja and established it as their new capital. Earlier Bedhajja was the place of their training school of martial arts. This way, Shakya republic of Kapilvastu was devastated due to their belief in the blood purity concept. The story also points towards the development of superiority feeling or fear of getting impure in the fresh lot of Indo-Aryans who started settling in these regions in late Vedic era. The thrust on maintaining blood purity was so much higher that myths were created according to that which traced the origin of both Shakya and Lichchhavi tribes from the relationship between brothers and sisters.

The Shakyans are described as Gautam gotriya Suryavanshi Kshatriya in ancient literatures. Like other republican Kshatriyas, Shakyas too had their own santhagara to decide on various social and political issues. Like Mallas and Lichchhavis, in Shakyas too every family head was recognized as Raja. The main occupation of the tribe was agriculture. Their territory was bounded by Himalaya in the north and by the Malla country in the northeast. It shared borders with the Koliyas in the east with River Rohini (present Kohna) as dividing line and with the Kosala Kingdom in the south and west with River Rapti as dividing line. In present time, Shakya territory seems to be entire Siddharthnagar, northern part of Basti and some part of Maharajganj districts of Uttar Pradesh and Terai belt of Nepal. Kapilvastu, the main city of Shakyans is a disputed area. While Indian historians trace it to ‘Piprahwa – Ganwaria’ village in Basti district from where the relics of Buddha have been discovered [18][19],  historians from Nepal locate it to Tilaurakot, to which Indian historians describe as Bedhajja, the new capital of the Shakyas of Kapilvastu after massacre done by Vidudabha.

2.5 Koliyas of Ramagrama

The tribe of Koliyas is mentioned in the Buddhist literatures like Anguttara Nikaya, Mahavastu, Apadana and Buddhaghosa’s commentary but not mentioned in the Brahmanical literatures under this name. They are neither mentioned in Jaina texts nor in the works of Panini and Chanakya. The etymology of word Koliya is probably related to tree Kola (Jujube, Hindi – Ber) as Kunala Jataka refers the Koliyas as a people dwelling on Jujube tree. According to the myths, the Koliyas are related to the Shakyas of Kapilvastu through the expelled prince and princesses. The elder sister, Priya or Sita, who was given the status of mother by rest brothers and sisters contracted leprosy. The Shakya brothers then took her out of their territory and dig a big underground room for her stay with lots of food and water stored in it. They blocked the entrance of the room with wooden planks and put a large heap of earth on it. Meanwhile, King Rama of Benares also contracted leprosy. He abdicated the power to his son and left for the forest. He started living in the hollow of a Kola tree to protect himself from the wild things. One day, he heard the screams of Priya when a tiger was trying to enter her pit. Next morning, he went to see the location and found Priya inside it. When he enquired about her, she told the entire story. When Rama offered to cure her, she refused saying that she will prefer to die than to disgrace her family, caste and race. Rama then introduced himself as Kshatriya King of Benares who started living in the forest due to leprosy. Knowing Rama’s lineage, Priya agreed to live together. She was slowly cured and meanwhile gave birth to 32 sons [20]. One day Rama encountered an archer who in turn asked about the identity of 32 princes. Rama told the entire story to him. The archer returned to Benares and narrated the story to then king of Benares who was the son of Rama. The king proceeded to forest to meet his father and found him there. He built a magnificent city on the site of Kola tree and titled the city Koliya. As a result, all 32 princes were known as Koliya and since the place was on the path (Pali – Pajja, Sanskrit – Path) of tiger (Pali – Vaagh), they were known of Vyaghhapajja gotra [21]. Opposite to it, the Mahavastu traces the origin of word Koliya from sage Kola. It only differs in its version by placing Sage Kola in place of King Rama. The myth further says that all 32 princes married to 32 Shakyan princesses after their mother Priya convinced her Shakyan brothers to establish the ties. Keeping myths aside, historians have accepted the origin of word Koliya from tree Kola (Hindi – Ber) which is abundant in the region where the tribe lived in. In the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, the Koliyas are recognized as Nagvanshi Kshatriyas i.e. snake worshippers. As they were animal (serpent) worshippers, the population chiefly belonged to Dravidians of Australoid race with Mongoloid and Indo-Aryan traits.

The Koliya territory was surrounded by the hills of Nepal in the north, by the Mallas in the northeast, by the Mauryas of Pipphalivana in the east, by the Kosala Kingdom in the south and west with River Anoma (present Rapti) as dividing line and by the Shakyas in the northwest with River Rohini as dividing line. Thus the country of Koliya was a thin strip of land spread from River Ghaghara in the south till the northern hills of Nepal. It covered around 32 km from east to west. Their villages figured in the Buddhist literatures are Uttara, Kakkarapatta, Sajjanela, Haliddavasana, Kundia / Kundi and Sapuga [22]. The tribe had their capital at Ramagrama which is now a disputed site. The dispute has its origin in the present location of Ramagrama Stupa that was built by the Koliyas after getting 1/8th of the Buddha’s relics from the Malla of Kusinara. The UNESCO and Nepal government have recognized Nawalparasi, situated adjacent to River Jharahi in Nepal, with the ancient Ramagrama. Its identification is based on the Ceylonese tradition which says that the relic casket of Buddha was washed away by the current of River Ganges. It was then discovered by the Nagas or water gods who presented it to their King. The King then built a stupa (of Ramagrama) on it. The same casket was later obtained by holy monk Sonuttara during the reign of Duttagamini of Ceylon (161-137 BC) and thus enshrining the great stupa in the land of Lanka. The Ceylonese tradition is completely at variance with the statements of Fa-Xian and Hiuen Tsang who visited India in the beginning of the 5th century and middle of 7th century AD respectively. Both mentioned the presence of Ramagrama stupa beside a tank and the local tradition which says that the tank of clear water was populated by Nagas (dragons) who daily transformed into men and worshipped the stupa. They also mentioned the tradition prevalent in the region about Ashoka’s attempt to dig the Ramgrama stupa and how it was saved after his argument with one Naga King from the nearby pond who used to worship it and thus becoming the only stupa not getting damaged by him. In Chinese accounts too, the argument which the Naga King gave to Ashoka is the same which he gave to dissuade the holy Sonuttara from removing the relics and taking it to Ceylon. Cunningham after his research concluded that a river was purposely introduced in the place of a pond by Ceylonese tradition so that they can prove the transfer of relics from Ramagrama to Ocean and from there to them and hence genuineness to the stupa built at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka. Based on all these arguments, the capital of Koliyas ‘Ramagrama’ was identified by Cunningham as Deokali - a city between Kapilvastu and Kusinagara, Rampur-Deoria by Sir Karlail, Ramgadh Taal of Gorakhpur by Dr. Rajbali Pandey, Dharmauli by Sir Smith and Vanarsinha village of Nautanwa in Maharajganj district by T.M.B. Buddhamitra [23].

Similar to other republics, the Koliyas too had their assembly to take decisions on various social and political issues. According to Kunala Jataka, the members of the Koliya assembly were known as Rajas and sometimes as Maharajas. The main occupation of the tribe was agriculture. They were frequently engaged in war with the Shakyas over the distribution of water from Rohini for agricultural purpose. Buddha had to intervene sometimes to calm the anger between both tribes. Once when Buddha intervened to stop the fighting, he was greeted by all the Kings from both sides. Buddha questioned the maharajas (two chiefs of each side) and at the end settled the dispute by showing the futility of shedding the precious blood of Kshatriyas for some water. The tribe had police force who wore a distinguishing head dress with a drooping crest (Lambaculakabhata). They had a bad reputation for their practice of violence and extortion [22]. Till the time of Fa-Xian, mass scale migration of the Koliyas took place towards Kumaon and Kathmandu region of Nepal [24]. The remaining Koliyas aligned with the Mallas of Kusinara and Pava due to their similar socio-political orientation as described by Fa-xian. As Koliyas belonged to the Australoid race with Mongoloid trait and were accepted by some Indo-Aryan warrior populations such as by certain section of the Shakyas, Mallas and Mauryas, it is easy to see large Dravidian-Mongoloid traits in present time in certain communities living in the same area and having the title of Shakya, Malla-Sainthwar and Maurya.

2.6 Mauryas of Pipphalivana - click here to read


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References:
[14] Thapar, R. (1978). Ancient Indian Social History: Some interpretations, pp. 273-274. New Delhi: Orient Longman.
[15] Law, B. C. (2005). Ksatriya Clans in Buddhist India, p. 31. New Delhi: Ajay Book Service.
[16] Dharmapala, A. (2002). The Maha Bodhi, p. 18. India: Maha-Bodhi Society.
[17] Sharma, J. P. (1968). Republics in Ancient India, pp. 191-192. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
[18]
Buddhamitra, T. M. B. (1999). Bhagwan Buddha ke samkalin anuyayi tatha Buddha Kendra, pp. 23-62. Gorakhpur: Rahul Sankrityayan Sansthan
[19] Singh, U. (2008). A history of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to 12th Century p. 266. India: Dorling Kindersley.
[20] Holt, J. C. (2004). The Buddhist Vishnu: Religious transformation, politics and culture, pp. 136-137. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
[21] Malalsekera, G. P. (2003). Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, p. 952. New Delhi: Asian educational Services.
[22] Malalsekera, G. P. (2003). Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, p. 690. New Delhi: Asian educational Services.
[23]
Buddhamitra, T. M. B. (1999). Bhagwan Buddha ke samkalin anuyayi tatha Buddha Kendra, pp. 201-206. Gorakhpur: Rahul Sankrityayan Sansthan
[24] Joshi, S. L. (1993). Nepal under Amsuvarma golden period, p. 108. New Delhi: Anmol.

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Index
   Chapter 1   Chapter 2   Chapter 3   Chapter 4   Chapter 5   Chapter 6   Chapter 7   Chapter 8   Chapter 9   Chapter 10

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