The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s2.5

v1.c19.s2.5

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 Cutch¹. 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, Sāmagāma, Khomadussa, Silāvatī, Medaḷumpa, Nagaraka, Ulumpa, Devadaha, and Sakkara. And according to an ancient tradition preserved in the Commentary on the Dīgha² there were 80,000 the clan. This number (it is noteworthy that the number 84,000 was not chosen) would, allowing for dependents, mean a population of at least half a million. It would be absurd to take this tradition as a correct, or 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.