Tradition tells that the neighbouring clan, the Koliyas, were closely
related by descent with the Sākiyası ; but we are not told much about the
former.
related by descent with the Sākiyası ; but we are not told much about the
former.
Cambridge History of India - v1
152 (#186) ############################################
CHAPTER VII
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
1. PRE-BUDDHISTIC
The early history of the Buddhists should properly begin far enough
back before the birth of the Buddha to throw light on the causes that were
at work in producing the rise and progress of the Buddhist reformer.
Unfortunately, even after all that has been written on the subject of early
Buddhist chronology, we are still uncertain as to the exact date of the
Buddha's birth. The date 483 B. C. which is adopted in this History must
still be regarded as provisional. The causes of this uncertainty which were
explained by the present writer in 1877 still remain the same :
If the date for Asoka is placed too early in the Ceylon chronicles, can
we still
trust the 218 years which they allege to have elapsed from the coinmencement of the
Buddhist era down to the time of Asoka ? If so we have only to add that number to
the correct date of Asoka, and thus fix the Buddhist era (the date of the Buddha's
death) at 483 B. C. or shortly after. Of the answer to this question, there can, I think,
be no doubt. We can not? .
This statement was followed by an analysis of the details of the lists
of kings and teachers, the length of whose reigns or lives, added together,
amount to this period of 218 years. The analysis shows how little the list
can be relied on. The fact is that all such calculations are of very
doubtful
validity when they have to be made backwards for any lengthened period.
Sinologists, Assyriologists, Egyptologists have not been able to agree on
results sought by this method ; and, though Archbishop Usher's attempt
to discover in this way, from the Hebrew records, the correct date of the
creation was long accepted, it is now mere matter for derision, As is well
known, even the Christian chronologists, though the interval they had to
cover was very short, were wrong in their calculation of our Christian era.
The Ceylon chroniclers may have been as much more wrong as the interval
they had to account for was longer. We must admit that they tried their
1 In the Buddhist chapters names and titles appear in their Pāli form.
2 Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon, p. 44 of the separate edition (London,
1877).
152
## p. 153 (#187) ############################################
VII ]
ANCIENT STATES
153
best, and were not so utterly at sea as the Irish church-dignitary. But we
do not even know who made the calculation. We first hear of it in the
fourth century A. D. , and are only entitled to conclude that at that date
the belief in the 218 years was accepted by most of those Buddhists who
continued in possession of the ancient traditions.
There have been endeavours, on the basis of other traditions, to arrive
at a more exact date for the birth of the Buddha”. It is sufficient to state
that each of these is open to still more serious objection. We must be
satisfied to accept, as a working hypothesis only, and not as an ascertained
fact, the general belief among modern European scholars that the period
for the Buddha's activity may be approximately assigned to the sixth
century B. C.
In previous chapters of this volume will be found the story, drawn
from the Brāhman literature, of the gradual establishment in Northern
India of the Āryan supremacy. For the period just before the rise of
Buddhism (say the seventh century B. c. ) this literature tells us very little
about political movements. The Buddhist books also are devoted to ideas
rather than to bistorical events, and pass over, as of no value to their main
objects, the dates and doings and dynastic vicissitudes of the kinglets before
their own time. The fact that they do so is historically important; and
we should do wrong in ignoring, in a history of India, the history of the ideas
held by the Indian peoples. But the fact remains. It is only quite inciden-
tally that we can gather, from stories, anecdotes, or legends in these books,
any information that can be called political. Of that referring to the pre-
Buddhist period the most important is perhaps the list of the Sixteen Great
Powers, or the Sixteen Great Nations, found in several places in the early
books. It is a mere mnemonic list and runs as follows :
1. Angā
9. Kuru
2. Magadhā
10. Pañchālā
3. Kāsi
11. Macchā
4. Kosalā
12. Sūrasenā
5. Vajji
13. Assakā
6. Mallā
14. Avanti
7. Cheti
15. Gandhārā
8. Vamsā
16. Kambojā
When a mnemonic phrase or verse of this kind is found in identical
terms in diffierent parts of the various anthologies of which the Buddhist
1 For the recent literature from the point of view of those who accept the 218
years as correct see Geiger, Mahāvamsa (English translation), pp. xxii-xxxvi.
2 See, for instance, the various results detailed by Winternitz, Geschichte der
indischen Litteratur, II, i, note 1
3 Anguttara I, 213; IV, 252, 256, 260. Referred to in Maharastu II, 2, line 15.
Cf. the note in Vinaya Texts, II, 146.
## p. 154 (#188) ############################################
154
[ch.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
>
canon consists, the most probable explanation is that it had been current
in the community before the books were put together as we now have them
and that it is therefore older than those collections in which it is foundi.
As this particular list is found in two of the oldest books in the canon it
would follow that it is, comparatively speaking, very old. It may even be
pre-Buddhist - a list handed down among the bards and adopted from
them by the early Buddhists. For it does not fitly describe the conditions
which, as we know quite well, prevailed during the Buddha's life-time.
Then the Kosa la mountaineers had already conquered Benares (Kāsi), the
Angas were absorbed into the kingdom of Magalhas, and the Assakas
probably belonged to Avanti. In our list all these three are still regarded
as independent and important nations; and that the list is more or less
correct for a period before the rise of Buddhism is confirmed by an ancient
rune preserved in the Digha’, and reproduced (in a very corrupt form, it is
rune) in one of the oldest Sanskrit-Buddhist texts. It runs :
Dantapura of the Kalingas, and Potana of the Assakas,
Māhissati for the Avantis, Roruka in the Sovira land,
Mithilā for the Videhas, and Champā among the Angas
And Benares for the Kāsis-all these did Mahā. Govinda plan.
We have here seven territories evidently, from the context, regarded
as the principal ones, before the rise of Buddhism, in the centre of what
was then known as Jambudipa (India). Though quite independent of the
list just discussed these mnemonic verses tell a similar story. Here also
appear the Assakas, Angas aud Käsis. Only the Kalingas are added ; and
the name of their capital, Dantapura, 'the Tooth city,' shows incidentally
that the sacred tooth, afterwards taken from Dantapura to Ceylon was
believed, when this list was drawn up, to have been already an object of
reverence before the time of the Buddha. This tradition of a pre-Buddhist
Dantapura, frequently referred to in the Jātakas, is thus shown to be really
of much greater age. And it is clear that at the time when the four Nikāyas
were put into their present form it was believed that, before the Buddha's
life-time, the distribution of power in Northern India, had been different
from what it afterwards became.
In an appendix to the Digha verse the names of the seven kings of the
seven nations are given, and it is curious that they are called the seven
Bhāratas. Their names are Sattabhu, Brahmadatta, Vessabhu, Bharata,
Reņu, and two Dhataratthas; but the record does not tell us which of the
seven nations each belongs to. In an interesting story at Jātaka III, 4705,
1 Cf. Rh. D. , Buddhist India, p. 188.
2 II, 235, translated in Dialogues of the Buddha, II, 270.
3 Mahūrastu III, 208, 209.
4 For the Nikāyas and their probable date, v. inf. , pp. 173. 4.
5 The references are to the Pāli text of the Jātaka. In the English translation the
volumes correspond, and the pages of the original are indicated in square brackets.
## p. 155 (#189) ############################################
VII ]
THE CLANS
155
the hero is Bharata, king of the Soviras, reigning at Roruva, This is most
probably meant for the same man as the Bharata of the Digha passage ;
and we may therefore apportion him to the Soviras. The mention of Reņu
in a list of ancient kings of Benares given in the Dip. III, 38-40 probably
refers to the Reņu of our passage since the same rare name is given in both
places as the name of the father of Reņu. On the other hand the King
Reņu of Jātaka iv, 144 is evidently not meant to be the same as this one.
Three of the other four names also recur (not Sattabhu) ; but no inference
can be drawn that the same people are meant.
There are lists of pre-Buddhist Rājas (whatever that term may signify)
in the chronicles and commentaries. But they can only be evidence of
beliefs held at a late date ; they have not yet been tabulated or sifted ; and
it would not be safe to hazard a prophecy that, even when they shall have
been, there will be found anything of much value.
2. INDIA IN THE BODDHA'S TIME ; TAE CLANS
.
There is no chapter or even paragraph in the early Páli books describ-
ing the political conditions of North India during the life time of the Buddha.
But there are a considerable number of incidental references, all the more
valuable perhaps because they are purely incidental, that, if collected and
arranged, give us a picture, no doubt imperfect, but still fairly correct as far
as it goes, of the general conditions, as they appeared to the composers of
the paragraphs in which the incidental references occur. They were
collected in the present writer's Buddhist India ; and to that work the
reader is referred for a fuller account. Considerations of space render it
possible to state here only the more important of the conclusions which
these references com pel us to draw.
Of these the most far-reaching, and in some respects the most sur-
prising, is the fact that we find not only one or two powerful monarchies,
and several kingdoms of lesser importance- like the German duchies or the
kingdoms in England at the time of the Heptarchy--but also a number of
republics ; some with complete, some with
or less modified
independence ; and one or two of very considerable power. This reminds
us of the political situation at about the same period in Greece. We shall
find a similar analogy, due to similar causes, in other matters also. If
not pressed too far the analogy will be as useful as it is certainly interesting.
The following is a list of the republics actually referred to by name
in the oldest Pāli records. Some mentioned by Megasthenese are added
to it.
1. The Sākiyas, capital Kapilavatthu
2. The Bulis, capital Allakappa
3. The Kālāmas, capital Kesaputta
a
more
## p. 156 (#190) ############################################
156
[CH.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
4. The Bhaggas, capital on Sumsumāra Hill
5. The Koliyas, capital Rāmagāma
6. The Mallas, capital Pāvā
7. The Mallas, capital Kusinārā
8. The Moriyas, capital Pipphalivana
9. The Videhas, capital Mithilā
10. The Licchavis, capital Vesāli
11-15, Tribes, as yet unidentified, mentioned
by Megasthenes
Nos. 1. 10 occupied in the sixth century B. C. the whole country east of
Kosala between the mountains and the Ganges. Those mentioned, as is
reported in other authors, by Megasthenes seem to have dwelt in his time
on the sea-coast of the extreme west of India north of the gulf of Cutch'.
It is naturally in relation to the Sākiyas that we have the greatest amount
of detail. Their territory included the lower slopes of the Himālayas, and
the glorious view of the long range of snowy peaks is visible, weather
permitting, from every part of the land. We do not know its boundaries
or how far it extended up into the hills or down into the plains. But the
territory must have been considerable. We hear of a number of towns
besides the capital - Chātumā, Sāmagāra, Khomadussa, Silāvati, Meda-
lumpa, Nagaraka, Ulumpa, Devadaha, and Sakkara. And according to an
.
ancient tradition preserved in the Commentary on the Digha? there were
80,000 families in the clan. This number (it is noteworthy that the auspi-
cious number 84,000 was not chosen) would, allowing for children and
dependents, mean a population of at least half a million. It would be
absurd to take this tradition as a correct, or even as an official enumeration.
We do not even know who first made the calculation. But it would be
equally absurd deliberately to ignore it. It is at least interesting to find
that even as late as Buddhaghosa the traditional estimate of the number of
the Sākiyans was still, in spite of the temptation to magnify the extent of
the 'kingdom' which the Buddha renounced, so limited and so reasonable
as this.
The administrative business of the clan, and also the more important
judicial acts, were carried out in public assembly, at which young and old
were alike. The meetings were held in a mote-hall- a
roof
supported by pillars, without walls. It is called Santhāgāra, a technical
term never used of the council chamber of kings. "
We have no account of the manner in which the proceedings were
conducted in the Sākiya mote-hall. But in the Maha-Govinda Suttanta
there is an account of a palaver in Sakka's heaven, evidently modelled
1 M'Crindle, Ancient India as described by Megasthenese, p. 144, cf. p. 156.
See Rh. D. , Dialogues of the Buddha, I, 147.
D. I, 91.
4 See the passages quoted at J. P. T. S. , 1909, 65.
mere
## p. 157 (#191) ############################################
VII ]
LOCAL ADMINISTRATION
157
>
more or less on the proceedings in a clan meeting. All are seated in a
specified order. After the president has laid the proposed business before
the assembly others speak upon it, and Recorders take charge of the
unanimous decision arrived at? . The actions of gods are drawn in imita-
tion of those of men. We may be sure that the composers and repeaters
of this story, themselves for the most part belonging to the free clans (and,
if not, to neighbouring clans familiar with tribal meetings) would make use
of their knowledge of what was consequently done at the mote-hall
assemblies. This is confirmed by the proceedings adopted in the rules
observed at formal meetings of the Chapters of the Buddhist Order. Quite
a number of cases are given in the Canon Law; and in no single case,
:
apparently, is there question of deciding the point at issue by voting on a
motion moved. Either the decision is regarded as unanimous ; or, if
difference of opinion is manifest, then the matter is referred for arbitration
to a committee of referees'. It is even quite possible that certain of the
technical terms found in the Rules of the Orders (ñatti for ‘motion,'
ubbāhikā for 'reference to arbitration, etc. ), are taken from those in use at
the mote-halls of the free clans. But however that may be, we are justified
by this evidence in concluding that the method of procedure generally
adopted in the mote-halls was not, as in modern parliaments, by voting on
a motion, but rather as just above explained.
A single chief (how or for what period chosen we do not know) was
elected as office holder, presiding over the Senate, and, if no senate were in
session, over the state. He bore the title of Raja which in this connexion
does not mean king, but rather something like Roman consul, or the
Greek archon. We hear at one time that Bhaddiya, a young cousin
of the Buddha, was ‘rāja’4, at another that the Buddha's father Suddhudana
(elsewhere spoken of as a simple clansman, Suddhodana the Sākiyan), held
that ranks.
We hear of mote-halls at some of the other towns besides the capital,
Kapilavatthu. And no doubt all the more important places had them.
The local affairs of each village were carried on in open assembly of the
householders held in the groves which, then as now, formed so distinctive
a feature in the long and level alluvial plain.
The clan subsisted on the produce of their rice fields and their cattle.
The villages were of grouped, not scattered, huts on the margin of the rice
field. The cattle wandered in harvest time, under the charge of a village
herdsman, through the adjoining forest (of which the village groves were a
remnant), and over which the Sākiyan peasantry had common rights.
5
>
1 Translated' in Dialogues, vol. II, pp. 259-264.
2 Translated in Rhys Davids' and Oldenberg's Vinaya Texts. See especially vol.
pp.
44 ff.
3 Vinaya Texts, III, pp. 49 ff.
4 Vinaya II, 181.
5 Digha II 52
III,
## p. 158 (#192) ############################################
158
[ CH
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
>
Men of certain special crafts, most probably not Sākiyans by birth-
carpenters, smiths, and potters for instance - had villages of their own ;
and so also had the Brāhmans whose services were often in request for
all kinds of magic. The villages were separated one from another by
forest jungle, the remains of the Great Wood (the Mahāvana), portions
of which are so frequently mentioned as still surviving throughout the
clanships. The jungle was infested from time to time by robbers, sometimes
runaway slaves. But we hear of no crime (and there was probably not
very much) in the villages themselves - each of them a tiny self-governed
republic.
Tradition tells that the neighbouring clan, the Koliyas, were closely
related by descent with the Sākiyası ; but we are not told much about the
former. Five of their townships besides the capital are referred to by
name: -- Halidda-vasana”, Sajjanela3, Sāpūga“, Uttara”, and Kakkara-pattae.
Every Koliyan was a Vyaggha pajja by surname, just as every Sākiyan was
a Gotama ; and in tradition the name of their capital Rāmagāma, so
called after the Rāma who founded it, is once given as either Kolanagara
or Vyagghapajja? The central authorities of the clan were served by a
body of peons or police, distinguished, as by a kind of uniform, by
a special form of head-dress. These men had a bad reputation for
extortion and violence. In the other clans we are told only of ordinary
servants. The tradition that the Koliyans and Sākiyans built a dam over
the river Rohini which separated their territories, and that they afterwards
quarrelled over the distribution of the store of water, may very well be
founded on fact.
Of the form of government in the Vajjian confederacy, comprising the
Licchavis, the Videhas, and other clans, we have two traditions, Jain
and Buddhist10. They are not very clear and do not refer to the same
matters, the Jain being on military affairs, while the Buddhist refers
to judicial procedure.
THE KINGDOMS. I. KOSALA
Kosala was the most important of the kingdoms in North India
during the life of the Buddhi. Its exact boundaries are not known.
But it must have bordered on the Ganges in its sweep downwards in
a south-easterly direction from the Himālayas to the plains at the modern
Allahābād. Its northern frontier must have been in the hills, in what is
now Nepāl ; its southern boundary was the Ganges; and its eastern
boundary was the eastern limit of the Sākiya territory. For the Sākiyas,
as one of our oldest documents leads us to infer, claimed to be Kosalansll.
1 Sumangala I, 258 ff.
2 M. I, 387; S. V, 115. 3 A. II, 62,
4 A, II, 194.
5 S. IV, 340.
6 A. IV, 281.
7 Sum. I, 262.
8 S. IV, 341.
9 Jat. V, 412-416.
10 Jacobi, Jaina Sutras, I, XII 11 Sutta Nipata, verse 422.
>
## p. 159 (#193) ############################################
VII ]
KOSALA
159
a
The total extent of Kosala was therefore but little less than that of France
to-day. At the same time it is not probable that the administration
was very much centralised. The instance of the very thorough Home Rule
enjoyed, as we have seen, by the Sākiyas should make us alive to the
greater probability that autonomous local bodies, with larger power than
the village communities, which were of course left undisturbed, were still
in existence throughout this wide territory.
One or two of the technical terms in use to describe such powers have
survived. Rāja-bhogga for example is the expression for a form of tenure
peculiar in India. The holder of such a tenure, the rāja-bhoggo, was
empowered to exact all dues accruing to the government within the bound-
aries of the district or estate granted to him. But he had not to render
to government any acco unt of the dues thus received by him. They were
his perquisite. He could hold his own courts, and occupied in many ways
the position of a baron, or lord of the manor. But there was a striking
difference. He could draw no rent. The peasantry had to pay him the tithe,
of the rice grown; and though the amount was not always strictly a tithe,
and by royal decree could be varied in different localities, the grantee could
not vary it. So with the import, or ferry, or octroi duties. The rate of
payment, and the places at which the levy could be made, were fixed by
the government. We have not enough cases of this tenure to be able to
interpret with certainty the meaning of all the details, and limits of space
prevent a discussion of them here. But the general principle is quite clear? .
It shows how easy would be the grant to local notabilities of local govern-
ment to this extent, and how narrow was the line of distinction between
the collection of dues by civil servants or farmers of the taxes and their
collection by a grantee in this way. This custom, thus traced back to so
early a period in the history of India, seems never to have fallen into abey-
ance, It certainly, in the period under discussion, was of manifest advan-
tage. But it must be admitted that it is, to English ideas, very strange -
so strange that our civilians made the mistake, in Bengal, of regarding all
such persons legally empowered to collect the land-tax as landlords, and of
endowing them accordingly with the much greater privileges and powers
of the English landlord. In the Buddhist period there is no evidence of
the existence, in North India, of landlords in our sense of that term.
It was the rise of this great power, Kosala, in the very centre of
Northern India, which was the paramount factor in the politics of the time
before the Buddhist reform. We do not know the details of this rise. But
there are purely incidental references imbedded in the ethical teachings in the
Buddhist books which afford us at least hints as to the final manner of it,
and as to the date of it. For instance we have the story of Dighāvu in the
1 D. I, 114, 127, 130 : cf. II, 50 and Divy. , 620, Vin. III, 221, with the Old Com.
mentary at 222, M. III, 133, Jāt. VI, 344, Sum. Vil. I, 245, 246.
## p. 160 (#194) ############################################
160
[ch.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
Vinaya? . There Brahinadatta, king of Käsi, invades Kosala, when Dighiti
was king at Săvatthi, and conquered and annexed the whole country ; but
finally restored it to Dighiti's son, with whom he had become on very
friendly terms. Other traditions inform us on the other hand of several
invasions of the Kāsi country by the then kings of Kosala, Vanka,
Dabbasena, and Kamsa? . And when that most excellent story, the Rājovada
Jātaka3- as good in humour as it is in ethics-was first put together to
represent two kings in conflict, the quite natural idea was to fix upon kings
of Kosala and Kāsi, and the author does so accordingly.
No references have so far been found in the books as to any contests
between Kosala and any other tribe or nationality. It would seem therefore
that the gradual absorption into Kosala of the clans and tribes in the
northern part of Kosala as we know it in the Buddha's time took place
without any such battle, campaign, or siege as was sufficiently striking to
impress the popular imagination ; but that when Kosala came into contact
with Kāsi there ensued a struggle, with varying result and lasting through
several reigns, which ended in the complete subjugation of the Kāsi country
by Kamsa, king of Kosala.
As to the approximate period of these events, we see that they
were supposed to have taken place not only before the time of Pasenadi,
who was born about the same time as the Buddha and lived about as long,
but also before the time of his father the Great Kosalan. We have four
kings of Kosala mentioned as taking part in these wars, and cannot be sure
that there were not others who had quieter reigns. It would be enough and
more than enough to allow, in round numbers, a century for all these
kings. And the period cannot be much longer than that. For the name
Brahmadatta could not have been older than towards the close of the
Brāhmaṇa literature ; and a century and a half before the birth of the
Buddha would about bring us to that.
The king of Kosala in the Buddha's time was Pasenadi. He was of
the same age as the Teacher; and though never actually converted, was
very favourable to the new movement, adopted its more elementary teach-
ings, and was fond of calling upon the Buddha either to consult him or
simply for conversation. A whole book of the Samyutta is devoted to such
talks, and others are recorded elsewhere. They are mostly on religion or
ethics, but some political and personal matters are occasionally mentioned
incidentally.
For instance five ‘rājas' are introduced discussing a point in
psychology with Pasenadi. Whatever the title may exactly imply it is
probable that we have the leaders of five clans or communities that,
1 l'inaya Texts, II, 293-305.
? Jät. I, 262 ;II, 403 ; III, 13, 168, 211; v, 1 12.
3 Jätaka II, 1.
4 M. II, 124.
6 The Kosala Samyutta, S. I, 68-102.
>
## p. 161 (#195) ############################################
VII ]
AJĀTASATTU
161
formerly independent, had, at that time, been absorbed into Kosala. Again
we hear of a double campaign. In the first Ajātasattu, king of Magadha,
attacks Pasenadi in the Kāsi country and compels him to take refuge
in Sāvattbi'. In the second, Pasenadi comes down again into the plains,
defeats Ajātasattu, and captures him alive. Then he restores to him the
possession of his camp and army, and lets him go free". The commentaries
inform us that he also gave him, on this occasion his daughter Vajirā, to
wife. They also give the reasons for the dispute between the two kings ;
but this will be better dealt with under the next heading. Another con-
versation arises when the king comes to tell the teacher of the death of his
(the king's) grandmother for whom he expressed his deep devotion and
esteem. She had died at a great age, specified at 120 years, no doubt a
round number. At another talk Sumanā, the king's sister, is present, and
becomes converted. Desiring to enter the Order she refrains from doing
so in order to take care of this same old lady, and attains Arahantship while
still a lay-woman. The last and longest talk between the two friends
took place at Medaļumpa in the Sākiya country. The king, in much
trouble with his family and ministers, expressed his admiration, anci
possibly also some envy, at the manner in which the teacher preserved peace
in his Order. He then took his last leave with a striking declaration of his
devotion. But even as they were talking the crisis had come. The
radition records that the minister in whose charge the insignia had been
left when the king went on alone, had in his absence, proclaimed the king's
son, Viļūdabha, as king. Pasenadi found himself deserted by all his
people. He hurried away to Rājagaha to get help from Ajātasattu, and,
worn out by worry and fatigue, he died outside the gates of the city? .
Ajātasattu gave him a state funeral, but naturally enough left Vidūdabha
undisturbed.
The first use the latter made of his new position was to invade the
Sākiya territory, and slaughter as many of the clan - men, women and
children -as he could catch. Many however escaped®, and it is, perhaps, ,
to this remnant what we owe the Piprahwa Tope discovered by Mr. Peppe.
Elsewhere it has been shown that the reasons given for this invasion were
probably not the real ones. But why should the Buddhists have taken
pains so elaborately to explain away the fact, unless the fact itself had been
indisputable? This is the last we know of Kosala. We hear nothing more
of Viļūdabha, or of his successors if he had any. When the curtain rises
again Kosa la has been absorbed into Magadha.
1 S. I, 79.
2 S. I, 82-85.
3 Jāt. II, 404 ;IV, 343.
4 S. I, 97, cf. Jät. IV, 146. 5 S. I, 69; Thig. 16.
6 M. JI, 118-124.
7 Jātaka IV, 152.
8 Dhp. A. I, 359 ; Mahavamsa VIII, 18, and the Tikā on it.
9 Buddhist India, pp. 1), 12.
>
## p. 162 (#196) ############################################
162
( ch.
THE EARLY HISTORI OF BUDDHISTS
II. MAGADHA
This was a narrow strip of country of some considerable length from
north to south, and about twelve to fifteen per cent. in area of the size of
Kosala. Just as Kosala corresponded very nearly to the present province of
Oudh, but somewhat larger, so Magadha corresponded in the time of
the Buddha to the modern district of Patna, but with the addition of the
northern half of the modern district of Gayā. The inhabitants of this
region still call it Magā, a name doubtless derived from Magadhat. The
boundaries were probably the Ganges to the north, the Son to the west, a
dense forest reaching to the plateau of Chotā Nagpur to the south, and
Anga to the east. The river Champā had been the boundary between
Magadha and Anga? ; but in the Buddha's time Anga was subject to
Magadha- it is the king, not of Anga, but of Magadha, who makes a
Jand-grant in Anga (that is a grant of the government tithe), and an Anga
village is one of the eighty thousand parishes over which the king of
Magadha holds rule and sovereignty! All the clansmen in each of these
.
two countries are called by Buddhaghosa, princes (exactly as he elsewhere
calls the Sākiyas and Licchavis). The same writer says that the two
kingdoms amounted together to 'three hundred leagues. It is reasonable
to suppose, as he was born and bred in Magadha, that he was not so very
far wrong. But this is said in reference to the time of Bimbisāra. Later
on he estimates the area of the whole of the United Kingdom of Magadha,
in the time of Ajātasattu, at five hundred leagues. We may conclude from
this that, according to the tradition handed down to Buddha ghosa, the
size of the kingdom had nearly doubled in the interval. This would
be about correct if the allusion were to Ajātasattu's conquests north of the
Ganges? . As Buddhaghosa however seems to use the larger figures of
a date, not after, but at the beginning of those conquests, other wars
of which we have no record, to the east or south, may be meant.
The king of Magadha in the Buddha's time, was Bimbisāra.
principal queens one was the Kosala Devi, daughter of Mahā-Kosala ; and
sister therefore of Pasenadi8 ; another was Chellanā, daughter of a chieftain
of the Licchavis'; and a third was Khemā, daughter of the king of Madda
in the Punjabł0. If the traditions of these relationships be correct they are
eloquent witnesses to the high estimate held in other countries of the
then political importance of Magadha.
1 Grierson in E. R. E. VI, 181.
? Jāt. IV, 454-above, pp. 153-54. 3 Digha I, 111. 4 Vinaya I, 179.
5 Rāja-kumārā, Sum. I, 279,294. See Early Buddhism, 27.
6 Yojanas, Sum. I, 148.
? V. Inf. p. 164. 8 Jāt, II, 403. 9 Jacobi, Jaina Sūtrar, I, XII-XV.
10 Thig. A. on 139-143, and A padāna quoted ibid. 131.
a
## p. 163 (#197) ############################################
VII]
MAGADHA
163
Bimbisāra had a son known as Vedehi-putto Ajātasattu in the
canonical Pāli texts, and as Kūņika by the Jains. The later Buddhist
tradition makes him a son of the Kosala Devi ; the Jain tradition,
. confirmed by the standing epithet of Vedehi-putto, son of the princess of
Videha, in the older Buddhist books, makes him a son of Chellanā.
Buddhaghosa has preserved what is no doubt the traditional way of
explaining away the evidence contained in the epithet?
CHAPTER VII
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
1. PRE-BUDDHISTIC
The early history of the Buddhists should properly begin far enough
back before the birth of the Buddha to throw light on the causes that were
at work in producing the rise and progress of the Buddhist reformer.
Unfortunately, even after all that has been written on the subject of early
Buddhist chronology, we are still uncertain as to the exact date of the
Buddha's birth. The date 483 B. C. which is adopted in this History must
still be regarded as provisional. The causes of this uncertainty which were
explained by the present writer in 1877 still remain the same :
If the date for Asoka is placed too early in the Ceylon chronicles, can
we still
trust the 218 years which they allege to have elapsed from the coinmencement of the
Buddhist era down to the time of Asoka ? If so we have only to add that number to
the correct date of Asoka, and thus fix the Buddhist era (the date of the Buddha's
death) at 483 B. C. or shortly after. Of the answer to this question, there can, I think,
be no doubt. We can not? .
This statement was followed by an analysis of the details of the lists
of kings and teachers, the length of whose reigns or lives, added together,
amount to this period of 218 years. The analysis shows how little the list
can be relied on. The fact is that all such calculations are of very
doubtful
validity when they have to be made backwards for any lengthened period.
Sinologists, Assyriologists, Egyptologists have not been able to agree on
results sought by this method ; and, though Archbishop Usher's attempt
to discover in this way, from the Hebrew records, the correct date of the
creation was long accepted, it is now mere matter for derision, As is well
known, even the Christian chronologists, though the interval they had to
cover was very short, were wrong in their calculation of our Christian era.
The Ceylon chroniclers may have been as much more wrong as the interval
they had to account for was longer. We must admit that they tried their
1 In the Buddhist chapters names and titles appear in their Pāli form.
2 Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon, p. 44 of the separate edition (London,
1877).
152
## p. 153 (#187) ############################################
VII ]
ANCIENT STATES
153
best, and were not so utterly at sea as the Irish church-dignitary. But we
do not even know who made the calculation. We first hear of it in the
fourth century A. D. , and are only entitled to conclude that at that date
the belief in the 218 years was accepted by most of those Buddhists who
continued in possession of the ancient traditions.
There have been endeavours, on the basis of other traditions, to arrive
at a more exact date for the birth of the Buddha”. It is sufficient to state
that each of these is open to still more serious objection. We must be
satisfied to accept, as a working hypothesis only, and not as an ascertained
fact, the general belief among modern European scholars that the period
for the Buddha's activity may be approximately assigned to the sixth
century B. C.
In previous chapters of this volume will be found the story, drawn
from the Brāhman literature, of the gradual establishment in Northern
India of the Āryan supremacy. For the period just before the rise of
Buddhism (say the seventh century B. c. ) this literature tells us very little
about political movements. The Buddhist books also are devoted to ideas
rather than to bistorical events, and pass over, as of no value to their main
objects, the dates and doings and dynastic vicissitudes of the kinglets before
their own time. The fact that they do so is historically important; and
we should do wrong in ignoring, in a history of India, the history of the ideas
held by the Indian peoples. But the fact remains. It is only quite inciden-
tally that we can gather, from stories, anecdotes, or legends in these books,
any information that can be called political. Of that referring to the pre-
Buddhist period the most important is perhaps the list of the Sixteen Great
Powers, or the Sixteen Great Nations, found in several places in the early
books. It is a mere mnemonic list and runs as follows :
1. Angā
9. Kuru
2. Magadhā
10. Pañchālā
3. Kāsi
11. Macchā
4. Kosalā
12. Sūrasenā
5. Vajji
13. Assakā
6. Mallā
14. Avanti
7. Cheti
15. Gandhārā
8. Vamsā
16. Kambojā
When a mnemonic phrase or verse of this kind is found in identical
terms in diffierent parts of the various anthologies of which the Buddhist
1 For the recent literature from the point of view of those who accept the 218
years as correct see Geiger, Mahāvamsa (English translation), pp. xxii-xxxvi.
2 See, for instance, the various results detailed by Winternitz, Geschichte der
indischen Litteratur, II, i, note 1
3 Anguttara I, 213; IV, 252, 256, 260. Referred to in Maharastu II, 2, line 15.
Cf. the note in Vinaya Texts, II, 146.
## p. 154 (#188) ############################################
154
[ch.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
>
canon consists, the most probable explanation is that it had been current
in the community before the books were put together as we now have them
and that it is therefore older than those collections in which it is foundi.
As this particular list is found in two of the oldest books in the canon it
would follow that it is, comparatively speaking, very old. It may even be
pre-Buddhist - a list handed down among the bards and adopted from
them by the early Buddhists. For it does not fitly describe the conditions
which, as we know quite well, prevailed during the Buddha's life-time.
Then the Kosa la mountaineers had already conquered Benares (Kāsi), the
Angas were absorbed into the kingdom of Magalhas, and the Assakas
probably belonged to Avanti. In our list all these three are still regarded
as independent and important nations; and that the list is more or less
correct for a period before the rise of Buddhism is confirmed by an ancient
rune preserved in the Digha’, and reproduced (in a very corrupt form, it is
rune) in one of the oldest Sanskrit-Buddhist texts. It runs :
Dantapura of the Kalingas, and Potana of the Assakas,
Māhissati for the Avantis, Roruka in the Sovira land,
Mithilā for the Videhas, and Champā among the Angas
And Benares for the Kāsis-all these did Mahā. Govinda plan.
We have here seven territories evidently, from the context, regarded
as the principal ones, before the rise of Buddhism, in the centre of what
was then known as Jambudipa (India). Though quite independent of the
list just discussed these mnemonic verses tell a similar story. Here also
appear the Assakas, Angas aud Käsis. Only the Kalingas are added ; and
the name of their capital, Dantapura, 'the Tooth city,' shows incidentally
that the sacred tooth, afterwards taken from Dantapura to Ceylon was
believed, when this list was drawn up, to have been already an object of
reverence before the time of the Buddha. This tradition of a pre-Buddhist
Dantapura, frequently referred to in the Jātakas, is thus shown to be really
of much greater age. And it is clear that at the time when the four Nikāyas
were put into their present form it was believed that, before the Buddha's
life-time, the distribution of power in Northern India, had been different
from what it afterwards became.
In an appendix to the Digha verse the names of the seven kings of the
seven nations are given, and it is curious that they are called the seven
Bhāratas. Their names are Sattabhu, Brahmadatta, Vessabhu, Bharata,
Reņu, and two Dhataratthas; but the record does not tell us which of the
seven nations each belongs to. In an interesting story at Jātaka III, 4705,
1 Cf. Rh. D. , Buddhist India, p. 188.
2 II, 235, translated in Dialogues of the Buddha, II, 270.
3 Mahūrastu III, 208, 209.
4 For the Nikāyas and their probable date, v. inf. , pp. 173. 4.
5 The references are to the Pāli text of the Jātaka. In the English translation the
volumes correspond, and the pages of the original are indicated in square brackets.
## p. 155 (#189) ############################################
VII ]
THE CLANS
155
the hero is Bharata, king of the Soviras, reigning at Roruva, This is most
probably meant for the same man as the Bharata of the Digha passage ;
and we may therefore apportion him to the Soviras. The mention of Reņu
in a list of ancient kings of Benares given in the Dip. III, 38-40 probably
refers to the Reņu of our passage since the same rare name is given in both
places as the name of the father of Reņu. On the other hand the King
Reņu of Jātaka iv, 144 is evidently not meant to be the same as this one.
Three of the other four names also recur (not Sattabhu) ; but no inference
can be drawn that the same people are meant.
There are lists of pre-Buddhist Rājas (whatever that term may signify)
in the chronicles and commentaries. But they can only be evidence of
beliefs held at a late date ; they have not yet been tabulated or sifted ; and
it would not be safe to hazard a prophecy that, even when they shall have
been, there will be found anything of much value.
2. INDIA IN THE BODDHA'S TIME ; TAE CLANS
.
There is no chapter or even paragraph in the early Páli books describ-
ing the political conditions of North India during the life time of the Buddha.
But there are a considerable number of incidental references, all the more
valuable perhaps because they are purely incidental, that, if collected and
arranged, give us a picture, no doubt imperfect, but still fairly correct as far
as it goes, of the general conditions, as they appeared to the composers of
the paragraphs in which the incidental references occur. They were
collected in the present writer's Buddhist India ; and to that work the
reader is referred for a fuller account. Considerations of space render it
possible to state here only the more important of the conclusions which
these references com pel us to draw.
Of these the most far-reaching, and in some respects the most sur-
prising, is the fact that we find not only one or two powerful monarchies,
and several kingdoms of lesser importance- like the German duchies or the
kingdoms in England at the time of the Heptarchy--but also a number of
republics ; some with complete, some with
or less modified
independence ; and one or two of very considerable power. This reminds
us of the political situation at about the same period in Greece. We shall
find a similar analogy, due to similar causes, in other matters also. If
not pressed too far the analogy will be as useful as it is certainly interesting.
The following is a list of the republics actually referred to by name
in the oldest Pāli records. Some mentioned by Megasthenese are added
to it.
1. The Sākiyas, capital Kapilavatthu
2. The Bulis, capital Allakappa
3. The Kālāmas, capital Kesaputta
a
more
## p. 156 (#190) ############################################
156
[CH.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
4. The Bhaggas, capital on Sumsumāra Hill
5. The Koliyas, capital Rāmagāma
6. The Mallas, capital Pāvā
7. The Mallas, capital Kusinārā
8. The Moriyas, capital Pipphalivana
9. The Videhas, capital Mithilā
10. The Licchavis, capital Vesāli
11-15, Tribes, as yet unidentified, mentioned
by Megasthenes
Nos. 1. 10 occupied in the sixth century B. C. the whole country east of
Kosala between the mountains and the Ganges. Those mentioned, as is
reported in other authors, by Megasthenes seem to have dwelt in his time
on the sea-coast of the extreme west of India north of the gulf of Cutch'.
It is naturally in relation to the Sākiyas that we have the greatest amount
of detail. Their territory included the lower slopes of the Himālayas, and
the glorious view of the long range of snowy peaks is visible, weather
permitting, from every part of the land. We do not know its boundaries
or how far it extended up into the hills or down into the plains. But the
territory must have been considerable. We hear of a number of towns
besides the capital - Chātumā, Sāmagāra, Khomadussa, Silāvati, Meda-
lumpa, Nagaraka, Ulumpa, Devadaha, and Sakkara. And according to an
.
ancient tradition preserved in the Commentary on the Digha? there were
80,000 families in the clan. This number (it is noteworthy that the auspi-
cious number 84,000 was not chosen) would, allowing for children and
dependents, mean a population of at least half a million. It would be
absurd to take this tradition as a correct, or even as an official enumeration.
We do not even know who first made the calculation. But it would be
equally absurd deliberately to ignore it. It is at least interesting to find
that even as late as Buddhaghosa the traditional estimate of the number of
the Sākiyans was still, in spite of the temptation to magnify the extent of
the 'kingdom' which the Buddha renounced, so limited and so reasonable
as this.
The administrative business of the clan, and also the more important
judicial acts, were carried out in public assembly, at which young and old
were alike. The meetings were held in a mote-hall- a
roof
supported by pillars, without walls. It is called Santhāgāra, a technical
term never used of the council chamber of kings. "
We have no account of the manner in which the proceedings were
conducted in the Sākiya mote-hall. But in the Maha-Govinda Suttanta
there is an account of a palaver in Sakka's heaven, evidently modelled
1 M'Crindle, Ancient India as described by Megasthenese, p. 144, cf. p. 156.
See Rh. D. , Dialogues of the Buddha, I, 147.
D. I, 91.
4 See the passages quoted at J. P. T. S. , 1909, 65.
mere
## p. 157 (#191) ############################################
VII ]
LOCAL ADMINISTRATION
157
>
more or less on the proceedings in a clan meeting. All are seated in a
specified order. After the president has laid the proposed business before
the assembly others speak upon it, and Recorders take charge of the
unanimous decision arrived at? . The actions of gods are drawn in imita-
tion of those of men. We may be sure that the composers and repeaters
of this story, themselves for the most part belonging to the free clans (and,
if not, to neighbouring clans familiar with tribal meetings) would make use
of their knowledge of what was consequently done at the mote-hall
assemblies. This is confirmed by the proceedings adopted in the rules
observed at formal meetings of the Chapters of the Buddhist Order. Quite
a number of cases are given in the Canon Law; and in no single case,
:
apparently, is there question of deciding the point at issue by voting on a
motion moved. Either the decision is regarded as unanimous ; or, if
difference of opinion is manifest, then the matter is referred for arbitration
to a committee of referees'. It is even quite possible that certain of the
technical terms found in the Rules of the Orders (ñatti for ‘motion,'
ubbāhikā for 'reference to arbitration, etc. ), are taken from those in use at
the mote-halls of the free clans. But however that may be, we are justified
by this evidence in concluding that the method of procedure generally
adopted in the mote-halls was not, as in modern parliaments, by voting on
a motion, but rather as just above explained.
A single chief (how or for what period chosen we do not know) was
elected as office holder, presiding over the Senate, and, if no senate were in
session, over the state. He bore the title of Raja which in this connexion
does not mean king, but rather something like Roman consul, or the
Greek archon. We hear at one time that Bhaddiya, a young cousin
of the Buddha, was ‘rāja’4, at another that the Buddha's father Suddhudana
(elsewhere spoken of as a simple clansman, Suddhodana the Sākiyan), held
that ranks.
We hear of mote-halls at some of the other towns besides the capital,
Kapilavatthu. And no doubt all the more important places had them.
The local affairs of each village were carried on in open assembly of the
householders held in the groves which, then as now, formed so distinctive
a feature in the long and level alluvial plain.
The clan subsisted on the produce of their rice fields and their cattle.
The villages were of grouped, not scattered, huts on the margin of the rice
field. The cattle wandered in harvest time, under the charge of a village
herdsman, through the adjoining forest (of which the village groves were a
remnant), and over which the Sākiyan peasantry had common rights.
5
>
1 Translated' in Dialogues, vol. II, pp. 259-264.
2 Translated in Rhys Davids' and Oldenberg's Vinaya Texts. See especially vol.
pp.
44 ff.
3 Vinaya Texts, III, pp. 49 ff.
4 Vinaya II, 181.
5 Digha II 52
III,
## p. 158 (#192) ############################################
158
[ CH
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
>
Men of certain special crafts, most probably not Sākiyans by birth-
carpenters, smiths, and potters for instance - had villages of their own ;
and so also had the Brāhmans whose services were often in request for
all kinds of magic. The villages were separated one from another by
forest jungle, the remains of the Great Wood (the Mahāvana), portions
of which are so frequently mentioned as still surviving throughout the
clanships. The jungle was infested from time to time by robbers, sometimes
runaway slaves. But we hear of no crime (and there was probably not
very much) in the villages themselves - each of them a tiny self-governed
republic.
Tradition tells that the neighbouring clan, the Koliyas, were closely
related by descent with the Sākiyası ; but we are not told much about the
former. Five of their townships besides the capital are referred to by
name: -- Halidda-vasana”, Sajjanela3, Sāpūga“, Uttara”, and Kakkara-pattae.
Every Koliyan was a Vyaggha pajja by surname, just as every Sākiyan was
a Gotama ; and in tradition the name of their capital Rāmagāma, so
called after the Rāma who founded it, is once given as either Kolanagara
or Vyagghapajja? The central authorities of the clan were served by a
body of peons or police, distinguished, as by a kind of uniform, by
a special form of head-dress. These men had a bad reputation for
extortion and violence. In the other clans we are told only of ordinary
servants. The tradition that the Koliyans and Sākiyans built a dam over
the river Rohini which separated their territories, and that they afterwards
quarrelled over the distribution of the store of water, may very well be
founded on fact.
Of the form of government in the Vajjian confederacy, comprising the
Licchavis, the Videhas, and other clans, we have two traditions, Jain
and Buddhist10. They are not very clear and do not refer to the same
matters, the Jain being on military affairs, while the Buddhist refers
to judicial procedure.
THE KINGDOMS. I. KOSALA
Kosala was the most important of the kingdoms in North India
during the life of the Buddhi. Its exact boundaries are not known.
But it must have bordered on the Ganges in its sweep downwards in
a south-easterly direction from the Himālayas to the plains at the modern
Allahābād. Its northern frontier must have been in the hills, in what is
now Nepāl ; its southern boundary was the Ganges; and its eastern
boundary was the eastern limit of the Sākiya territory. For the Sākiyas,
as one of our oldest documents leads us to infer, claimed to be Kosalansll.
1 Sumangala I, 258 ff.
2 M. I, 387; S. V, 115. 3 A. II, 62,
4 A, II, 194.
5 S. IV, 340.
6 A. IV, 281.
7 Sum. I, 262.
8 S. IV, 341.
9 Jat. V, 412-416.
10 Jacobi, Jaina Sutras, I, XII 11 Sutta Nipata, verse 422.
>
## p. 159 (#193) ############################################
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KOSALA
159
a
The total extent of Kosala was therefore but little less than that of France
to-day. At the same time it is not probable that the administration
was very much centralised. The instance of the very thorough Home Rule
enjoyed, as we have seen, by the Sākiyas should make us alive to the
greater probability that autonomous local bodies, with larger power than
the village communities, which were of course left undisturbed, were still
in existence throughout this wide territory.
One or two of the technical terms in use to describe such powers have
survived. Rāja-bhogga for example is the expression for a form of tenure
peculiar in India. The holder of such a tenure, the rāja-bhoggo, was
empowered to exact all dues accruing to the government within the bound-
aries of the district or estate granted to him. But he had not to render
to government any acco unt of the dues thus received by him. They were
his perquisite. He could hold his own courts, and occupied in many ways
the position of a baron, or lord of the manor. But there was a striking
difference. He could draw no rent. The peasantry had to pay him the tithe,
of the rice grown; and though the amount was not always strictly a tithe,
and by royal decree could be varied in different localities, the grantee could
not vary it. So with the import, or ferry, or octroi duties. The rate of
payment, and the places at which the levy could be made, were fixed by
the government. We have not enough cases of this tenure to be able to
interpret with certainty the meaning of all the details, and limits of space
prevent a discussion of them here. But the general principle is quite clear? .
It shows how easy would be the grant to local notabilities of local govern-
ment to this extent, and how narrow was the line of distinction between
the collection of dues by civil servants or farmers of the taxes and their
collection by a grantee in this way. This custom, thus traced back to so
early a period in the history of India, seems never to have fallen into abey-
ance, It certainly, in the period under discussion, was of manifest advan-
tage. But it must be admitted that it is, to English ideas, very strange -
so strange that our civilians made the mistake, in Bengal, of regarding all
such persons legally empowered to collect the land-tax as landlords, and of
endowing them accordingly with the much greater privileges and powers
of the English landlord. In the Buddhist period there is no evidence of
the existence, in North India, of landlords in our sense of that term.
It was the rise of this great power, Kosala, in the very centre of
Northern India, which was the paramount factor in the politics of the time
before the Buddhist reform. We do not know the details of this rise. But
there are purely incidental references imbedded in the ethical teachings in the
Buddhist books which afford us at least hints as to the final manner of it,
and as to the date of it. For instance we have the story of Dighāvu in the
1 D. I, 114, 127, 130 : cf. II, 50 and Divy. , 620, Vin. III, 221, with the Old Com.
mentary at 222, M. III, 133, Jāt. VI, 344, Sum. Vil. I, 245, 246.
## p. 160 (#194) ############################################
160
[ch.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
Vinaya? . There Brahinadatta, king of Käsi, invades Kosala, when Dighiti
was king at Săvatthi, and conquered and annexed the whole country ; but
finally restored it to Dighiti's son, with whom he had become on very
friendly terms. Other traditions inform us on the other hand of several
invasions of the Kāsi country by the then kings of Kosala, Vanka,
Dabbasena, and Kamsa? . And when that most excellent story, the Rājovada
Jātaka3- as good in humour as it is in ethics-was first put together to
represent two kings in conflict, the quite natural idea was to fix upon kings
of Kosala and Kāsi, and the author does so accordingly.
No references have so far been found in the books as to any contests
between Kosala and any other tribe or nationality. It would seem therefore
that the gradual absorption into Kosala of the clans and tribes in the
northern part of Kosala as we know it in the Buddha's time took place
without any such battle, campaign, or siege as was sufficiently striking to
impress the popular imagination ; but that when Kosala came into contact
with Kāsi there ensued a struggle, with varying result and lasting through
several reigns, which ended in the complete subjugation of the Kāsi country
by Kamsa, king of Kosala.
As to the approximate period of these events, we see that they
were supposed to have taken place not only before the time of Pasenadi,
who was born about the same time as the Buddha and lived about as long,
but also before the time of his father the Great Kosalan. We have four
kings of Kosala mentioned as taking part in these wars, and cannot be sure
that there were not others who had quieter reigns. It would be enough and
more than enough to allow, in round numbers, a century for all these
kings. And the period cannot be much longer than that. For the name
Brahmadatta could not have been older than towards the close of the
Brāhmaṇa literature ; and a century and a half before the birth of the
Buddha would about bring us to that.
The king of Kosala in the Buddha's time was Pasenadi. He was of
the same age as the Teacher; and though never actually converted, was
very favourable to the new movement, adopted its more elementary teach-
ings, and was fond of calling upon the Buddha either to consult him or
simply for conversation. A whole book of the Samyutta is devoted to such
talks, and others are recorded elsewhere. They are mostly on religion or
ethics, but some political and personal matters are occasionally mentioned
incidentally.
For instance five ‘rājas' are introduced discussing a point in
psychology with Pasenadi. Whatever the title may exactly imply it is
probable that we have the leaders of five clans or communities that,
1 l'inaya Texts, II, 293-305.
? Jät. I, 262 ;II, 403 ; III, 13, 168, 211; v, 1 12.
3 Jätaka II, 1.
4 M. II, 124.
6 The Kosala Samyutta, S. I, 68-102.
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VII ]
AJĀTASATTU
161
formerly independent, had, at that time, been absorbed into Kosala. Again
we hear of a double campaign. In the first Ajātasattu, king of Magadha,
attacks Pasenadi in the Kāsi country and compels him to take refuge
in Sāvattbi'. In the second, Pasenadi comes down again into the plains,
defeats Ajātasattu, and captures him alive. Then he restores to him the
possession of his camp and army, and lets him go free". The commentaries
inform us that he also gave him, on this occasion his daughter Vajirā, to
wife. They also give the reasons for the dispute between the two kings ;
but this will be better dealt with under the next heading. Another con-
versation arises when the king comes to tell the teacher of the death of his
(the king's) grandmother for whom he expressed his deep devotion and
esteem. She had died at a great age, specified at 120 years, no doubt a
round number. At another talk Sumanā, the king's sister, is present, and
becomes converted. Desiring to enter the Order she refrains from doing
so in order to take care of this same old lady, and attains Arahantship while
still a lay-woman. The last and longest talk between the two friends
took place at Medaļumpa in the Sākiya country. The king, in much
trouble with his family and ministers, expressed his admiration, anci
possibly also some envy, at the manner in which the teacher preserved peace
in his Order. He then took his last leave with a striking declaration of his
devotion. But even as they were talking the crisis had come. The
radition records that the minister in whose charge the insignia had been
left when the king went on alone, had in his absence, proclaimed the king's
son, Viļūdabha, as king. Pasenadi found himself deserted by all his
people. He hurried away to Rājagaha to get help from Ajātasattu, and,
worn out by worry and fatigue, he died outside the gates of the city? .
Ajātasattu gave him a state funeral, but naturally enough left Vidūdabha
undisturbed.
The first use the latter made of his new position was to invade the
Sākiya territory, and slaughter as many of the clan - men, women and
children -as he could catch. Many however escaped®, and it is, perhaps, ,
to this remnant what we owe the Piprahwa Tope discovered by Mr. Peppe.
Elsewhere it has been shown that the reasons given for this invasion were
probably not the real ones. But why should the Buddhists have taken
pains so elaborately to explain away the fact, unless the fact itself had been
indisputable? This is the last we know of Kosala. We hear nothing more
of Viļūdabha, or of his successors if he had any. When the curtain rises
again Kosa la has been absorbed into Magadha.
1 S. I, 79.
2 S. I, 82-85.
3 Jāt. II, 404 ;IV, 343.
4 S. I, 97, cf. Jät. IV, 146. 5 S. I, 69; Thig. 16.
6 M. JI, 118-124.
7 Jātaka IV, 152.
8 Dhp. A. I, 359 ; Mahavamsa VIII, 18, and the Tikā on it.
9 Buddhist India, pp. 1), 12.
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## p. 162 (#196) ############################################
162
( ch.
THE EARLY HISTORI OF BUDDHISTS
II. MAGADHA
This was a narrow strip of country of some considerable length from
north to south, and about twelve to fifteen per cent. in area of the size of
Kosala. Just as Kosala corresponded very nearly to the present province of
Oudh, but somewhat larger, so Magadha corresponded in the time of
the Buddha to the modern district of Patna, but with the addition of the
northern half of the modern district of Gayā. The inhabitants of this
region still call it Magā, a name doubtless derived from Magadhat. The
boundaries were probably the Ganges to the north, the Son to the west, a
dense forest reaching to the plateau of Chotā Nagpur to the south, and
Anga to the east. The river Champā had been the boundary between
Magadha and Anga? ; but in the Buddha's time Anga was subject to
Magadha- it is the king, not of Anga, but of Magadha, who makes a
Jand-grant in Anga (that is a grant of the government tithe), and an Anga
village is one of the eighty thousand parishes over which the king of
Magadha holds rule and sovereignty! All the clansmen in each of these
.
two countries are called by Buddhaghosa, princes (exactly as he elsewhere
calls the Sākiyas and Licchavis). The same writer says that the two
kingdoms amounted together to 'three hundred leagues. It is reasonable
to suppose, as he was born and bred in Magadha, that he was not so very
far wrong. But this is said in reference to the time of Bimbisāra. Later
on he estimates the area of the whole of the United Kingdom of Magadha,
in the time of Ajātasattu, at five hundred leagues. We may conclude from
this that, according to the tradition handed down to Buddha ghosa, the
size of the kingdom had nearly doubled in the interval. This would
be about correct if the allusion were to Ajātasattu's conquests north of the
Ganges? . As Buddhaghosa however seems to use the larger figures of
a date, not after, but at the beginning of those conquests, other wars
of which we have no record, to the east or south, may be meant.
The king of Magadha in the Buddha's time, was Bimbisāra.
principal queens one was the Kosala Devi, daughter of Mahā-Kosala ; and
sister therefore of Pasenadi8 ; another was Chellanā, daughter of a chieftain
of the Licchavis'; and a third was Khemā, daughter of the king of Madda
in the Punjabł0. If the traditions of these relationships be correct they are
eloquent witnesses to the high estimate held in other countries of the
then political importance of Magadha.
1 Grierson in E. R. E. VI, 181.
? Jāt. IV, 454-above, pp. 153-54. 3 Digha I, 111. 4 Vinaya I, 179.
5 Rāja-kumārā, Sum. I, 279,294. See Early Buddhism, 27.
6 Yojanas, Sum. I, 148.
? V. Inf. p. 164. 8 Jāt, II, 403. 9 Jacobi, Jaina Sūtrar, I, XII-XV.
10 Thig. A. on 139-143, and A padāna quoted ibid. 131.
a
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MAGADHA
163
Bimbisāra had a son known as Vedehi-putto Ajātasattu in the
canonical Pāli texts, and as Kūņika by the Jains. The later Buddhist
tradition makes him a son of the Kosala Devi ; the Jain tradition,
. confirmed by the standing epithet of Vedehi-putto, son of the princess of
Videha, in the older Buddhist books, makes him a son of Chellanā.
Buddhaghosa has preserved what is no doubt the traditional way of
explaining away the evidence contained in the epithet?
