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Tribes in Ancient India c53: Chapter XLIX. The Śākyas

Tribes in Ancient India c53

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Chapter XLIX. The Śākyas

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The Śākyas have acquired great importance in Indian history owing to the Buddha having been born among them. Before the birth of the founder of Buddhism, the Śākyas were comparatively little known; yet in the rugged fastnesses of the lower Himalayas, they had already built up a remarkable though not a very powerful principality.

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The traditional story of the Buddha’s birth starts with a discussion among the Devaputras in the Tuṣita heaven, as to which of the great royal families of India the Bodhisattva should honour with his birth. In this discussion, the Śākyas were not mentioned. The Devaputras pondered over the merits of the sixteen *Mahājanapadas* of Jambudvīpa (India), and analysed the claims of all the important royal families of the day, but found them all stained with one black spot or another. Being at a loss to find a people worthy of claiming him as their congener, the Devaputras at length had recourse to the Bodhisattva himself, and when finally the Śākyas were chosen as the recipient of that great honour, it was rather on account of their moral qualities.¹

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¹ *Lalitavistara*, Ed. Lefmann, pp. 26-7.

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The Śākyas of Kapilavastu claimed to be Kṣatriyas. As soon as they heard the news of the Buddha’s passing away, they demanded a portion of his relics, saying, ‘*Bhagavā amhākaṃ ñāti-seṭṭho*’² (‘the Blessed One was the chief (or best) of our kinsmen’). While all the other Kṣatriya clans that claimed a portion of the Buddha’s ashes did so on the grounds of their belonging to the same caste (*Bhagavā pi Khattiyo, mayampi Khattiyā*), in the case of the Śākyas the claim was founded upon a closer relationship, that of consanguinity.

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² *Dīgha Nikāya* (P.T.S.), Vol. II, p. 165.

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The origin of the Śākyas is traced back to King Okkāka, i.e. Ikṣvāku. It is stated in the *Sumaṅgalavilāsinī*³ that King Okkāka had five queens. By the chief queen, he had four sons and five daughters. After the death of the chief queen, he married another lady who extorted from him the promise to place her son upon the throne. The king thereupon requested his other sons to leave the kingdom. The princes, accompanied by their sisters, accordingly left the kingdom, and going to a forest near the Himalayas, they began to search for a site to build a city. In the course of their search, they met the sage Kapila who said that they should build a town in the place where he lived. The princes duly built the town, and named it Kapilavatthu (Kapilavastu). In course of time, the four brothers married four of the sisters (excepting the eldest one), and the family came to be known as the Śākyas.

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³ *Sumaṅgalavilāsinī*, Pt. I, pp. 258-60.

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This story is evidently fanciful. Sister-marriage was not in vogue in ancient India even in the earliest times of which we have any record, as the story of Yama and Yamī in the Ṛgveda amply demonstrates. The descent from King Okkāka, however, may be based on fact. The Mahāvaṃsa too traces the origin of the Śākyas to Okkāka, and gives their genealogy in great detail, going back to Mahāsammata of the same dynasty.¹

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¹ For the complete genealogy of the Śākyas, according to Sinhalese tradition, see Mahāvaṃsa, Chap. II, verses 1–24.

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There can be no doubt that King Okkāka in this genealogy is no other than Ikṣvāku of the so-called solar dynasty of the Purāṇas. Comparing the names with those in the Paurāṇic list, we find that the lists do not agree in every detail, but there is agreement with regard to some of the more prominent names. Thus, for example, in the long history of the solar dynasty given in the Viṣṇupurāṇa, Pt. IV, we find many of the names in the Mahāvaṃsa list, like Māndhātṛ (Mandhātā), Sagara (Sāgara), etc. The Viṣṇupurāṇa states that King Bṛhadvala (Bṛhadbala) of this dynasty was killed in the Kurukṣetra war,² and next proceeds to trace the descent of King Śākya from the Bṛhadvala.³

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² Viṣṇupurāṇa, Pt. IV, Chap. IV, verse 48.

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³ Wilson, Viṣṇupurāṇa, Vol. IV, Chap. XXII, pp. 167–72.

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The source of the accounts given in the Mahāvaṃsa and the Sumaṅgalavilāsinī is not, however, the Purāṇas, but such ancient Buddhistical works as the Mahāvastu. This latter work gives a detailed account of the foundation of Kapilavastu and the settlement of the Śākyas there. The story of the sister-marriage is given there, and, as in the Mahāvaṃsa, the Śākya family is traced back to Mahāsammata. The names of the kings that succeeded him agree in the two accounts, for the most part. The following story⁴ is told of Sujāta, king of the Śākyas, who reigned in the city of Sāketa. The king had five sons and five daughters, and also another son by a concubine, Jentī. Being pleased with Jentī, he promised her a boon. She demanded that her son, Jentī, should be recognised as heir-apparent; and the king, thought loath to consent, could not break his word. The five princes, his legitimate sons, went into exile, followed by many thousands of citizens. They were received by the king of Kāsī-Kośala, and the people of Kāsī-Kośala were delighted with the bearing of the princes. The king, however, became envious and drove the princes out of his kingdom. At the foot of the Himalayas there lived a wise sage called Kapila. His hermitage was vast and charming, with fruits and flowers, adorned with a good many plants and with a dense forest. The princes went to the dense forest and lived there. Traders used to pass through there on their way to Kāsī and Kośala. When asked whence they came, these traders replied that they had come from a certain part of the forest called Sākoṭavana.

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⁴ Obviously corresponding to the story of King Okkāka.

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The people of Sāketa as well as the traders of Kośala visited the Sākoṭavana. The princes took their brides from among their sisters by the same mother, because they did not wish their race to be contaminated by a mixture of blood. Hearing of this, King Sujāta asked his purohitas and learned Brahmins whether such a custom was permissible, and they replied in the affirmative.

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Meanwhile the princes decided to build a town. They went to the sage Kapila and said that they desired to build a city and name it after him. The princes built a city, making the sage’s hermitage a royal residence. As the hermitage was given by Kapila the sage, the city became known by the name of Kapilavastu. Kapilavastu was prosperous, wealthy and peaceful; there alms were easily obtainable, and the people were fond of trade and commerce, sociable, and fond of taking part in festivities.

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The names of the five princes were Opura, Nipura, Karaṇḍaka, Ulkāmukha and Hastikaśīrṣa. Opura was the eldest, and he was elected king of Kapilavastu.¹

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¹ *Mahāvastu*, Ed. Senart, Vol. I, pp. 348–52. It will be observed that Opura, Nipura, Karaṇḍaka, Ulkāmukha and Hastikaśīrṣa are represented in a former passage of the *Mahāvastu* as sons of King Sujāta. Here, however, the relationship between each prince and the one next mentioned is represented as that of father and son.

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The story given in the *Mahāvastu* and the *Sumaṅgalavilāsinī* about the origin of the Śākyas by sister-marriage is referred to in the introduction to the *Kunāla Jātaka*. Here the story of the origin of the Śākyas exactly tallies with that in the *Mahāvastu*, but there is some difference in the story of the Koliyas. While the *Mahāvastu* says that they resided in a cave of a hill, the Jātaka story relates that they received the name Koliya because of having resided in the hollow of a Koli or jujube tree.

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In the *Mahāvastu* the Śākyas are called ādityabandhus or ‘kinsmen of the sun’. This refers to their descent from the Solar dynasty to which the Ikṣvākus belonged.¹ The *Mahāvastu* also speaks of King Śuddhodana, father of the Buddha, as born in the Ikṣvāku family.² Another passage in the same work speaks of the Buddha as a Kṣatriya of the Ādityagotra and of the Ikṣvākukula, i.e. born in the family of the Ikṣvākus who derived their descent from the sun.³ The *Lalitavistara* (p. 112) also speaks of the Buddha as born in the royal family of Ikṣvāku.

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¹ *Mahāvastu*, II, p. 303.

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² *Ibid.*, III, p. 247.

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³ *Ibid.*, III, p. 246.

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The Śākyas were Kṣatriyas of the Gotama gotra, as is seen from the fact that the Buddha had the surname Gotama, while the Licchavis and Mallas who also belonged to the same race, bore the gotra name of Vasiṣṭha. The gotra of a Kṣatriya family was derived from the gotra name of the purohita or family priest; so evidently the Śākyas had adopted the Gotamas as their priests at an early date. The Gotama gotra is described in the Pāli books ⁴ as occupying a very high position among the gotras, no doubt from its association with the founder of Buddhism.

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⁴ E.g. *Suttavibhaṅga*, Pācittiya, II, 2; *Vinaya Piṭaka*, Oldenberg, Vol. IV, p. 6.

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Kapilavastu, the Śākya capital, is sometimes called Kapilavāstu. The *Lalitavistara* calls it Kapilavastu, and sometimes Kapilapura (p. 243) or Kapilāhvayapura (p. 28, etc.); and these names are also found in the *Mahāvastu*.⁵ The *Divyāvadāna* also connects Kapilavastu with the sage Kapila.⁶ In the *Buddhacarita*, the city is described as Kapilasya-vastu.⁷

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⁵ Vol. II, p. 11, line 3.

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⁶ *Divyāvadāna*, p. 548, lines 20–2. Kapilavastu, *ibid.*, pp. 90, 390; Kapilavāstu, *ibid.*, p. 67.

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⁷ *Buddhacarita*, Book I, verse 2.

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Kapilavastu is said to have been surrounded by seven walls.⁸ A clue to the identification of the city is furnished by the discovery of the famous Rummindei Pillar which marks the site of the ancient Lumbini garden, the traditional scene of Śākyamuni’s birth. Smith is inclined to identify the Śākya capital, which lay not far from the Lumbinigrāma, with Piprawa in the north of the Basti district on the Nepalese frontier.

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⁸ *Mahāvastu*, Vol. II, p. 75.

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The Chinese pilgrim, Fā-Hien, who visited India early in the fifth century A.D., says that the neighbourhood of Kapilavastu was infested by white elephants and lions, against which the people had to be on their guard.⁹ The country was thinly populated. He noticed towers at Kapilavastu, set up at various places, viz. where prince Siddhārtha left the city by the eastern gate, where his chariot was made to turn back to the palace, where his horoscope was cast by the sage Asita, where the elephant was struck by Nanda and others, where the arrow going thirty li in a south-eastern direction penetrated into the earth and produced a fountain of water which quenched the thirst of travellers in later generations, where Śuddhodana was met by his son when the latter had acquired supreme wisdom, where five hundred Śākya converts honoured Upāli, and where the children of the Śākyas were massacred by King Viḍūḍabha.¹

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⁹ *Travels of Fā-Hien and Sung-Yun*, by S. Beal, pp. 88–98.

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¹ Travels of Fā-Hien, by Beal, pp. 85-7.

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Hsüan Tsang, who visited India in the seventh century A.D., narrates that Kapilavastu, the country of the Śākyas, was about four thousand li in circuit. The royal precincts built of brick were within the city, measuring fourteen or fifteen li round.² He says that, long after the passing away of the Buddha, topes and shrines were built in or near Kapilavastu.³ The villages were few and desolate. The monasteries (saṅghārāmas) which were then in ruins, were more than one thousand in number. There still existed a saṅghārāma near the royal precincts which contained thirty (3,000 according to one text) followers who read ‘the little vehicle of the Sammatiya school’. There were two deva-temples where different sectarians worshipped. There were some dilapidated foundation walls, the remains of the principal palace of King Śuddhodana, above which a vihāra (monastery) was built containing a stūpa of the king. Near it was a foundation in ruins, representing the sleeping palace of Queen Mahāmāyā. Above it a vihāra was built containing a figure of the queen. Close by stood a vihāra, on the spot where the Bodhisattva was supposed to have entered the womb of his mother. A stūpa was built to the north-east of ‘the palace of spiritual conception’ of the Bodhisattva.⁴ To the north-west of the capital, a stūpa was built where King Viḍūḍabha massacred the Śākyas.⁵ The cultured land was rich and fertile and the climate of the country was bracing.

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² Beal, Records of the Western World, Vol. II, pp. 13-14.

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³ Watters, On Yuan Chwang, Vol. II, p. 4.

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⁴ Beal, Records of the Western World, Vol. II, pp. 14-15.

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⁵ Ibid., Vol. II, p. 12.

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According to Rhys Davids, there were villages around the rice-fields, and the cattle roamed about in the outlying forest. The jungles, which were occasionally resorted to by robbers, divided one village from another.⁶

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⁶ Buddhist India, pp. 20-21.

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Mention is made of several other Śākya towns besides Kapilavastu, viz. Chātumā, Sāmagāma, Ulumpā, Devadaha, Sakkara, Sīlāvatī, and Khomadussa.¹ The latter was so called on account of its abundant produce of linen cloth.²

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¹ Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, p. 175.

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² The Book of the Kindred Sayings, Pt. I, p. 233.

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It is stated in the *Jātaka* that the Śākyas were a haughty people, and did not do obeisance to Siddhārtha on the ground that he was younger in age, but were afterwards made to do so on seeing a miracle performed by him.³ Hsüan Tsang, however, says that the manners of the people were ‘soft and obliging’,⁴ while in Rockhill’s *Life of the Buddha* it is said that they did not kill any living thing, ‘not even a black bectle’.⁵ The produce of their cattle and rice-fields supplied their only means of livelihood. The villages were grouped around the rice-fields, and the cattle wandered through the outlying forest over which the peasantry had rights of common.⁶

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³ Jātaka (Fausböll), Vol. VI, pp. 479 foll.

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⁴ Beal, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 14.

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⁵ Rockhill, Life of the Buddha, p. 117.

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⁶ Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, p. 20.

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The Tibetan Buddhist Books as translated by Rockhill⁷ relate that the Śākya law allowed a man one wife only. This law is rather remarkable inasmuch as polygamy was in vogue in India from the Vedic age downwards,—especially among the Kṣatriyas who were rich and powerful. We may, however, account for the existence of this law among the Śākyas on the ground of their special constitution and position. They were a small tribe, and very proud of their birth. They would not give one of their girls in marriage even to such a powerful prince as Pasenadi of Kośala. Among such a people, marriage was generally confined within the tribe itself, and the number of marriageable girls being limited, many adult males would have to go without a wife if polygamy prevailed. Hence the law had grown up among them limiting the number of wives to one. But that the Śākyas had no objection to polygamy as such on religious or other grounds, is clear from the fact narrated by the same Tibetan works that the rigorous provision of the law was relaxed in the case of Śuddhodana, the father of the Buddha; in consideration of a great public service rendered by him when, as a young prince, in subduing the hillmen of the Pāṇḍava tribe, he was allowed by the Śākyas to have two wives.

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⁷ Life of the Buddha, p. 15.

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The *Lalitavistara* seems to suggest that Śuddhodana had a crowded harem, when it says that Māyādevī was his chief queen, being at the head of a thousand ladies.⁸ But this appears to be a mere poetic exaggeration, for the Pāli books speak of only two wives of the king. Prince Siddhārtha had only one wife according to all accounts, and, according to the *Lalitavistara*, even the hand of this girl was not granted to him, although he was a prince, until he could satisfy the proud Śākya father of his knowledge of the *śilpas* or arts, by an open exhibition of skill in warfare as well as the finer arts.¹ Siddhārtha’s wife is named Yaśodharā in the *Mahāvastu*, and her father is called Mahānāma.²

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⁸ ‘Suddhodanassa pramadā pradhānā nārisahasreṣu hi sāgraprāptā’. Lalitavistara, p. 28.

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¹ *Lalitavistara*, pp. 243ff.; and see *Mahāvastu*, II, 73.

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² *Mahāvastu*, II, 48.

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How proud and aristocratic the Śākyas were when asked to give away their daughters in marriage to any one outside their clan will appear from the following story of King Pasenadi of Kośala, who desired to have a Śākya girl as his consort. The king considered that if he married a Śākya girl, the Brethren (i.e. Bhikkhus) would be his friends, as he would then be related to them by marriage. So, rising from his seat, he returned to the palace, and sent a message to Kapilavatthu to this effect: ‘Please give me one of your daughters in marriage, for I wish to become connected with your family’. On receipt of this message the Śākyas gathered together and deliberated: ‘We live in a place subject to the authority of the king of Kośala; if we refuse to give him one of our daughters, he will be very angry; and if we give her, the custom of our clan will be broken. What are we to do?’ Then Mahānāma said to them, ‘I have a daughter named Vāsabhakhattiyā. Her mother is a slave woman named Nāgamuṇḍā; the girl is sixteen years old, of great beauty and auspicious prospects, and noble on her father’s side. Let us send her, as a girl nobly born.’ The Śākyas agreed, and, sending for the king’s messengers, said that they were willing to give a daughter of the clan, and that they might take her with them at once. But the messengers reflected: ‘These Śākyas are desperately proud in matters of birth. Suppose they should send a girl who is not one of them, and say that she is so. We will take none but one who eats along with them.’ However, by a ruse, Mahānāma avoided eating more than one mouthful with his daughter, and Pasenadi’s messengers did not discover the secret.

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‘So Mahānāma sent away his daughter in great pomp. The messengers brought her to Śrāvastī, and said that this maiden was the true-born daughter of Mahānāma. The king was pleased, and caused the whole city to be decorated, and placed her upon a pile of treasure, and by a ceremonial sprinkling made her chief queen. She was dear to the king, and beloved.’³

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³ *Jātaka* (Fausböll), Vol. IV, pp. 146 foll.

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The Tibetan books have preserved a story of Pasenadi. Once Pasenadi, king of Kośala, carried away by his horse, reached Kapilavastu alone, and roaming about hither and thither, came to the garden of Mahānāman. Here he saw the beautiful Mallikā, who was well versed in the Śāstras, and asked her whose garden it was, and was told that it belonged to the Śākya Mahānāman. The king dismounted, and asked for water for washing and drinking. Mallikā brought water for him, and then she was desired by the king to rub his feet, which she willingly did. Hardly had she touched his feet than he fell asleep. Mallikā thought that the king might have enemies, and did not open the gate when instructed to do so by a multitude of people. The king awoke and asked her what the matter was, and she told him what she had done. Her shrewdness and wisdom were admired by the king. Coming to know that she was a slave girl of Mahānāman, he went to her master and expressed his desire to marry her. The master agreed, and the king took her with him in great pomp to Śrāvastī. The king’s mother was highly displeased that her son had married a slave girl, but when Mallikā went to pay respects to her and touched her feet, she immediately fell asleep. When she awoke, she thought that such a touch could not be that of a maiden of noble birth, worthy of the family of Kośala. Shortly afterwards a son was born to Mallikā, and was called Virudhaka or the high-born.¹ It is evident that this story is a Tibetan version of the story of Pasenadi and Vāsabhakhattiyā.

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¹ Rockhill, *Life of the Buddha*, pp. 75-7. According to Pāli canonical literature, Virudhaka was the son of Pasenadi by another wife named Vāsabhakhattiyā, who was given in marriage to Pasenadi by the Śākyas.

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We learn, then, that the Śākyas contracted marriages within their own tribe, and even their ruling house did not enter into matrimonial relations with any of the numerous princely houses in N. India,—unlike the royal houses of Kośala, Magadha and Videha, for example. When the marriage of Prince Siddhārtha was decided upon at the council of five hundred Śākya elders, these proceeded to select a bride for him from among themselves. This clannish custom among the Śākyas perhaps gave rise to the idea that they married their sisters.²

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² *Vide ante.*

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In Hsüan Tsang’s times, when a Śākya child was born, it was carried to the temple of Īśvaradeva to be presented to the god. The temple contained a stone image of the god in the posture of rising and bowing.³

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³ Watters, *On Yuan Chwang*, Vol. II, p. 13.

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The women appear to have enjoyed a greater amount of independence and freedom of thought among the Śākyas than among the people of the plains, perhaps owing to the scarcity of women. Thus, according to all Buddhist accounts, the Śākya ladies were the first to cut themselves off from the world, and to institute the order of nuns, the foster-mother of the Buddha, Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī, taking the lead.¹ Some of the Śākya ladies who left the world and adopted the life of the female ascetic have left behind them poems and songs that are preserved in the Psalms of the Sisters (Therīgāthā). Among these ladies were Tissā, Abhirūpanandā and Mittā. Tissā was born at Kapilavastu among the Śākyas. She renounced the world with Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī, and attained Arahatship.² Abhirūpanandā was the daughter of Khemaka the Śākya. She was called Nandā the Fair for her great beauty and amiability. Her beloved kinsman, Carabhūta, died on the day on which she was to choose him from amongst her suitors. She had to leave the world against her will, and though she entered the Order, she could not forget that she was beautiful. Fearing that the Buddha would rebuke her, she used to avoid his presence. At last, however, she was compelled to come to him for instruction, and by his supernatural power the Buddha conjured up a beautiful woman who became transformed into an old and fading figure. This had the desired effect, and Nandā became an Arahat.³ Mittā, born in the royal family of the Śākyas at Kapilavastu, left the world with Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī, and like the other two, soon attained Arahantship.⁴

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¹ Vinaya Texts, S.B.E., Vol. XX, Pt. III, pp. 320-6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1st paragraph, and paragraphs 5 and 6.

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² Psalms of the Sisters, pp. 12-13.

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³ Ibid., pp. 22-3, and see also ibid., pp. 55-7 (Sundari Nandā).

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⁴ Ibid., p. 29.

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There was a technical college of the Śākyas in the mango-grove. ‘It was a long terraced mansion made for the learning of crafts.’⁵ The learning of one or other of the arts was incumbent upon every Śākya youth, for, as we have seen, no father would give his daughter in marriage to an idler or ignoramus. There was also a school for archery at Kapilavastu, where the Śākyas were trained.⁶ The Śākyas being a Kṣatriya tribe devoted to warlike pursuits, and surrounded on all sides by warlike tribes, the school of archery was necessarily a flourishing institution. The Lalitavistara describes in details the various sciences and arts, beginning with the arts of writing, that the young Siddhārtha had to learn. But the whole description is that of an ideal school which the poet imagined, no doubt basing the account on the condition of education in India at the time in which he wrote. There is nothing in the description that might be called particularly Śākya.

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⁵ Sumaṅgalavilāsinī, Vol. III, p. 905.

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⁶ Watters, On Yuan Chwang, Vol. II, p. 13.

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The minds of the Śākya royal princes and nobles were so enlightened by the Buddha that they were able to realise ‘the perfect fruit of righteousness’.¹ Nandupananda and Kuṇḍadana, two principal nobles, and other persons of the Śākya clan became recluses.² Upāli, son of Atali, followed their example. Then the other princes and the sons of the chief minister renounced the world.³ At the request of the Buddha, many Śākyas became recluses, and were well provided for.⁴ The life of the Śākya recluse was so attractive that Sumaṅgala (reborn in a poor family) became a recluse. The recluses were respected for their simplicity of life.⁵ There was a residence at Kapilavastu provided by the community for recluses of all schools.⁶

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¹ S.B.E., Vol. XIX, p. 226.

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² Ibid., pp. 226-7.

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³ Ibid., p. 227.

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⁴ Ibid., pp. 226-7; Psalms of the Brethren, p. 81.

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⁵ Psalms of the Brethren, p. 47.

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⁶ Buddhist India, p. 20.

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The administrative and judicial business of the Śākya clan was carried out in their *santhāgāra* or Council-Hall at Kapilavastu.⁷ A young Brahmin named Ambaṭṭha who went to Kapilavastu on business had the opportunity of visiting the *santhāgāra* of the Śākyas, where he saw the young and the old seated on grand seats.⁸ The ‘*samsthāgāra*’ is spoken of in the *Mahāvastu* and the *Lalitavistara*, and we are told there that 500 Śākyas usually took their seats in the Hall. The *Mahāvastu* describes how thirty-two princes, the sons of a Śākya girl and Rājā Kola of Benares, came to settle in Kapilavastu, and presented themselves before the Śākya council (*Śākya-pariṣad*), where 500 Śākya leaders sat together to transact some important business. A new Council-Hall of the Śākyas was raised at Kapilavastu when the Buddha was dwelling at the Nigrodhārāma in the Mahāvana which was close to it. At their request, the Buddha inaugurated the hall, and a series of ethical discourses lasting the whole of the night were delivered by him, Ānanda and Moggallāna.⁹

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⁷ Ibid., p. 19.

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⁸ Dīgha, I, p. 91. ‘Uccesu āsanesu nisinnā’.

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⁹ Buddhist India, p. 20.

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The *Lalitavistara* also gives 500 as the number of the members of the Śākya Council.¹⁰ The *Pariṣad* of the Licchavis appears to have been larger, but the system of administration seems to have been very much the same, though there was this difference, that while at Vaiśālī everyone called himself a *rājā*, at Kapilavastu there was one distinct headman called the *rājā* who was elected by the people. According to Rhys Davids, he had to preside over the sessions and when no sessions were held, he had to conduct the business of the State. But we hear that once Bhaddiya, a young cousin of the Buddha, took the title of *rājā*; and in one passage, Śuddhodana is styled a *rājā*, although he is elsewhere spoken of as a simple citizen.¹¹

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¹⁰ Lalitavistara, Ed. Lefmann, pp. 136-7.

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¹¹ Buddhist India, p. 19.

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In Prof. Rhys Davids' opinion, no doubt all the more important places had a ‘Mote-Hall’ or ‘pavilion covered with a roof but with no walls in which to conduct their business’. The local affairs of the villages were conducted in open assembly consisting of the householders, ‘held in the groves which, then as now, formed so distinctive a feature of each village in the long and level alluvial plain’.¹ In the time of the Chinese travellers, Fā-Hien, Sung-Yun and Hsüan Tsang, there was no central government at Kapilavastu. There existed a congregation of priests and about ten families of laymen.² Each town appointed its own ruler and there was no supreme ruler.³

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¹ *Buddhist India*, p. 20.

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² Beal, *Travels of Fā-Hien and Sung-Yun*, pp. 85–7.

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³ Beal, *Records of the Western World*, Vol. II, p. 14.

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D. R. Bhandarkar says that *kula* or clan sovereignty was prominent among the Śākyas. *Kula*, which was more extensive than the family, was the lowest political unit amongst the political *saṅghas*. To quote his words, *kula* ‘denotes not simply the domination of a chief over his clan, but also and principally his supremacy over the territory occupied by that clan’.⁴

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⁴ *Carmichael Lectures*, 1918, pp. 162–4.

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It appears from the *Mahāvastu*⁵ that Koliya and Licchavi young men also showed their prowess at the tournament held to test the knowledge of Prince Siddhārtha before his marriage. It seems that the Koliyas and Licchavis were on terms of close relationship with the Śākyas. The Koliyas were of kindred origin, and the Licchavis, from their living in the country to the south-east of the Śākya territory, most probably often became intimate with the Śākyas.

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⁵ Vol. II, p. 76.

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The Kośala country bordered on the region occupied by the Śākyas, and there were mutual jealousies between the two peoples that often developed into war. Thus we are told that the Śākyas became the vassals of King Pasenadi of Kośala who received homage from them. At first Pasenadi was scornful of and disrespectful towards the Buddha, but he later repented of his attitude, developed a great admiration for the Buddha, and paid his respects to him.⁶ We have already seen how he desired to establish a connection with the Buddha’s family by marriage.

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⁶ *Majjhima Nikāya* (P.T.S.), Vol. II, Pt. I, pp. 118–24.

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When Viḍūḍabha, the son of Pasenadi and Vāsabhakhattiyā, came of age, he found out that the Śākyas had deceived his father, and he resolved to take revenge upon them. In order to do this, he decided to get possession of the throne for himself, and with the aid of his commander-in-chief, Dīrgha Cārāyana or Dīgha Kārāyana, he deposed his father who fled from Śrāvastī, the Kośala capital, and set out for Rājagṛha, the capital of Magadha. But ‘it was late when he came to the city, and the gates were shut and lying down in a shed, exhausted by exposure to wind and sun, he died there’.¹ After ascending the throne, Viḍūḍabha invaded the Śākya country, took their (capital) city and slew many of them without any distinction of age or sex. He then took 500 Śākya girls for his harem, to celebrate his victory. Full of rage and hatred, the girls declared that they would never submit to the king. On hearing this, the king was enraged, and gave orders that they should be killed. According to the king’s orders, the officers cut off their hands and feet and threw them into a ditch. The girls invoked the Buddha who saw their plight through his divine insight, and ordered a bhikkhu to go to them and preach his doctrine. Having heard the instruction, they attained ‘purity of the eyes of law’, died, and were all reborn in heaven.² Viḍūḍabha himself is said to have perished by a sudden flood, along with numerous Kośalan followers.

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¹ Jātaka (Fausböll), Vol. IV, p. 152.

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² Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World, Vol. II, pp. 11-12.

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There is a different version of this account in the Viḍūḍakā-vadānam of the Avadānakalpalatā.³ According to this, Viḍūḍaka (= Viḍūḍabha) slaughtered seventy-seven thousand Śākyas and stole one thousand boys and girls. One day when he was eulogising his own prowess in his court, the stolen Śākya girls said, ‘Wherefore this pride when death is inevitable to a man bound by action?’ The king heard this, became angry, and ordered his men to cut off the hands of the girls.

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³ 11th Pallava (Bibl. Indica series).

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Rhys Davids says that the real motives which led Viḍūḍaka to attack and conquer the Śākyas were most probably similar to the political motives which led Ajātaśatru to attack and conquer the Licchavis of Vaiśālī. Viḍūḍaka perhaps used the arrogance of the Śākyas as a pretext.⁴

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⁴ Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, pp. 11-12; and see also Licchavi chapter.

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It is stated in the Mahāvaṃsa Ṭīkā that during the lifetime of the Buddha some Śākyas, being oppressed by Viḍūḍabha, fled to the Himalayas, where they built a beautiful city, which was known as Moriyanagara (Mauryanagara), because the spot always resounded with the cries of peacocks.⁵ The Buddhists hold that Aśoka and the Buddha were of the same family, as the former was descended from Candragupta, who was a son of the queen of one of the kings of Moriyanagara.⁶

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⁵ Mahāvaṃsa Ṭīkā (Ceylonese edition), pp. 119-21.

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⁶ Beal, Records of the Western World, Vol. I, Intro., p. xvii.

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THE MALLAS

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The Mallas were a powerful people of E. India at the time of Gautama Buddha, and are often mentioned in Buddhist and Jaina works.

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The country of the Mallas is spoken of in many passages of a Buddhist work as one of the sixteen ‘great countries’ (*Mahājanapadas*).¹ It is also mentioned in the *Sabhāparvan* of the *Mahābhārata*, where we are told that the second Pāṇḍava, Bhīmasena, during his expedition to E. India, conquered the chief of the Mallas, besides the country of Gopālakakṣa and the northern Kośala territories.² The *Bhīṣmaparvan* mentions the Mallas along with such E. Indian peoples as the Aṅgas, the Vaṅgas and the Kaliṅgas.³

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¹ Aṅguttara Nikāya, Vol. IV, p. 252.

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² Vaṅgavāsī Ed., Vol. I, p. 241; Sabhāparvan, Chap. XXX, śl. 3.

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³ Ibid., Bhīṣmaparvan, Chap. IX, śl. 46.

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At the time of which we are speaking, the Mallas appear to have been divided into two confederacies, ‘one with headquarters at Pāvā, and the other with headquarters at Kuśīnārā’, as we see from the *Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta*.⁴ There is reason to believe that in the Buddha’s time Kuśīnārā was not a city of the first rank, like Rājagṛha, Vaiśālī, or Śrāvastī. When the Lord expressed to Ānanda his desire to die at Kuśīnārā, Ānanda said to him, ‘Let not the Exalted One die in this little wattle-and-daub town, in this town in the midst of the jungle, in this branch township....’ The fact that the Buddha hastened to Kuśīnārā from Pāvā during his last illness indicates that the distance between the two towns was not great; but the description in the *Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta* does not enable us to make any accurate estimate. Kuśīnārā has been identified by Cunningham with the village of Kāsiā in the east of the Gorakhpur district,⁵ and this view has recently been strengthened by the fact that in the stūpa behind the Nirvāṇa temple, near this village, a copperplate has been discovered, bearing the inscription ‘(parini)rvāṇa-caitya-tāmra-patta’, or ‘the copperplate of the parinirvāṇa-caitya’. This identification appears to be correct, although V. A. Smith would prefer to place Kuśīnārā in Nepal, beyond the first range of hills.⁶ Rhys Davids expresses the opinion that, if we may trust the Chinese pilgrims, the territory of the Mallas of Kuśinārā and Pāvā was on the mountain slopes to the east of the Śākya land and to the north of the Vajjian confederation. But some would place their territory south of the Śākyas and east of the Vajjians.¹ It is a considerable distance from Kāsiā in the Gorakhpur district to Pāvāpuri of the Jainas in the Patna district, and one so ill as the Buddha was not likely to go such a distance on foot. Therefore Pāvā of the Buddhist books appears to have been distinct from Pāvāpuri, and situated not very far from Kāsiā.

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⁴ Dīgha Nikāya, Vol. II, p. 165.

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⁵ Ancient Geography of India, pp. 430–3.

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⁶ Early History of India, 4th Ed., p. 167, f.n. 5; J.R.A.S., 1913, p. 152.

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¹ Buddhist India, p. 26.

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The Cullavagga of the Vinaya Piṭaka mentions another town of the Mallas named Anupiyā,² where the Buddha resided for some time. This Anupiyā may be the same as the mango-grove called Anupiya, where Gautama spent the first seven days after his renunciation, on his way to Rājagṛha.³

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² Cullavagga, VII, 1, 1; Vinaya Texts, S.B.E., Pt. III, p. 224.

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³ Jātaka (Fausböll), Vol. I, pp. 65-6.

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A fourth town of the Mallas, called Uruvelakappa, where the Buddha stayed for some time, is mentioned in the Aṅguttara Nikāya.⁴ In its neighbourhood a wide forest called Mahāvana appears to have existed, where the Buddha went alone for midday rest after his meal, and met the gahapati Tapusa.

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⁴ Saṃyutta Nikāya, Pt. V, p. 228; Aṅguttara Nikāya, Vol. IV, p. 438.

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From the Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta account of the Buddha’s death and cremation,⁵ it is evident that the Mallas belonged to the Kṣatriya caste; and they are repeatedly addressed by the Buddha as well as by Ānanda and others as Vāseṭṭhas or Vāsiṣṭhas,⁶—showing that, like the Licchavis, they belonged to the Vāsiṣṭha gotra. Like the Licchavis again, the Mallas are described by Manu (X, 22) as ‘born of a Kṣatriya mother and of a Kṣatriya father who was a vrātya,’ i.e. who had not gone through the ceremony of Vedic initiation at the proper age.

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⁵ Dīgha Nikāya, II, p. 165.

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⁶ Ibid., III, p. 209.

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According to Kauṭilya, the Mallas were a saṅgha or corporation of which the members called themselves rājās, just as the Licchavis did. Buddhaghosa also calls them rājās.⁷ A passage in the Majjhima Nikāya mentions the Licchavis and Mallas as examples of saṅghas and gaṇas. The Mallas of Pāvā and Kuśinārā, then, had their respective Santhāgāras or Council-Halls, where all matters, both political and religious, were discussed. The Saṅgīti Suttanta of the Dīgha Nikāya⁸ tells us that when the Buddha came to the Mallas, a new Council-Hall named Ubbhaṭaka had just been built at Pāvā.

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⁷ Sumaṅgalavilāsinī, III, p. 971; and see Licchavi chapter.

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⁸ Dīgha, Pt. III, p. 207.

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The Mallas invited the Buddha to this hall, saying, ‘Let the Lord, the Exalted One, be the first to make use of it. That it has first been used by the Exalted One will be for the lasting good and happiness of the Pāvā Mallas’. At their request, the Buddha gave a discourse on his doctrine to the Mallas of Pāvā, until the late hours of the night. The Mallas were in assembly and had been doing business in their Council-Hall when Ānanda went to them with the message of the impending death of the Master; and again they gathered in assembly, evidently in the same *Santhāgāra*, to discuss the procedure to be followed in the disposal of the body, and afterwards to discuss the claims put forward by the various Kṣatriya kings and peoples.

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In the *Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta*, there is mention of a set of officers called *Purisas* among the Mallas of Kuśīnārā, about whose functions we are quite in the dark. Rhys Davids¹ takes them to be a class of subordinate servants. It is not unlikely that they are the same as the *Pulisas* mentioned in the edicts of Aśoka.

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¹ Buddhist India, p. 21.

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It seems that the Mallas were a martial race and were devoted to such manly sports as wrestling.² It is probable that the word ‘Malla’ denoting a professional wrestler was derived from the tribal name of this people. But the Mallas cultivated learning as well as physical culture. We read in one of the Buddhist texts, for example, that Bandhula, a son of a king of Kuśīnārā, went to Taxila for his education. There he studied with a great teacher, along with Pasenadi of Kośala, and Mahāli, a Licchavi prince of Vaiśālī. After completing his education he came back to this realm.³ We often find the Mallas discussing philosophical problems, as may be seen, e.g. from *Saṃyutta Nikāya*, IV, pp. 327ff.; V, pp. 228-9, 349ff.

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² *Jātaka* (Fausböll), Vol. II, p. 96.

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³ Fausböll, *Dhammapadam* (old edition), p. 211.

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Before the advent of Jainism and Buddhism, the Mallas seem to have been *caitya*-worshippers like their neighbours, the Licchavis. One of their shrines called Makuṭa Bandhana, to the east of Kuśīnārā, is mentioned in connection with the death of the Buddha: his dead body was carried thither for cremation. There is no indication of the kind of worship that was performed at this place.

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Jainism found many followers among the Mallas. The accounts in Buddhist Literature of the schism that appeared in the Jaina Church after the death of Mahāvīra amply prove this. At Pāvā, the followers of Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta were divided after the death of their great Tīrthaṅkara. There were both ascetics and lay devotees among these Jainas, for we read that on account of the disputations among the ascetics, ‘even the lay disciples of the white robe, who followed Nātaputta, showed themselves shocked, repelled and indignant at the Nigaṇṭhas.'¹ These lay Jainas appear from this passage to have been draped in white robes, just as the Śvetāmbaras are at the present day. The Buddha seems to have taken advantage of the schism that overtook the Jaina church on the death of its founder, for the propagation of the rival faith. In the Pāsādika Suttanta, we find that Cunda, the novice of Pāvā, brought the news of the death of Mahāvīra to Ānanda at Sāmagāma in the Malla country. Ānanda forthwith reported it to the Buddha who delivered a long discourse.²

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¹ Dīgha, III, p. 210.

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² Ibid., III, p. 118.

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The Mallas were much attached to the founder of Jainism. We are informed by the Kalpa Sūtra that to mark the passing away of the great Jina, nine Mallakis or Malla chiefs were among those that instituted an illumination on the day of the New-moon, saying, ‘Since the light of intelligence is gone, let us make an illumination of material matter.’³

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³ Jaina Sūtras, Pt. I, S.B.E., XXII, p. 266.

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Buddhism also attracted many devotees among the Mallas some of whom, like the venerable Dabba, attained a high and respected position among the brethren.⁴ On account of his virtues, he was appointed, after due election by the Buddhist Saṅgha, a regulator of lodging places and apportioner of rations. He was so successful in the discharge of these duties, which required a great deal of patience and tact, that he was considered by the Saṅgha to be possessed of miraculous powers. But there were some who were envious of him, and preferred charges against him to bring about his expulsion from the Saṅgha. The venerable Dabba, however, was exculpated from these charges.

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⁴ Vinaya Texts, Pt. III, pp. 4ff.

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Another Malla, Khaṇḍasumana, born in the family of a Malla rājā of Pāvā, entered the Buddhist Order and acquired six-fold Abhiññā.⁵

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⁵ Psalms of the Brethren, p. 90.

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Once, Buddha was in the country of the Mallas at Uruvelakappa. One day he asked Ānanda to remain there, while he left for Mahāvana to spend the day. While Ānanda was at Uruvelakappa, a householder named Tapussa, probably a Malla, came to him, and Ānanda took him to the Buddha whose teachings cured Tapussa of his desire for sensual pleasures.⁶ Another Malla, Roja, asked Ānanda whether the Buddha would accept potherbs and meal from him, and the Buddha asked him to hand them over to the bhikkhus.⁷ A certain Sīha was born in the country of the Mallas, in the family of a rājā.

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⁶ Aṅguttara Nikāya, Vol. IV, pp. 438-48.

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⁷ Vinaya Texts, Pt. II, S.B.E., Vol. XVII, p. 139.

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As soon as he saw the Buddha, he was attracted to him. The Buddha taught him the Dhamma, and he entered the Buddhist order and eventually developed insight and acquired Arhatship.¹

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¹ Psalms of the Brethren, p. 80.

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It was at the Mallian city of Pāvā that the Buddha ate his last meal at the house of Cunda, the smith, and fell ill. Though in pain, the Buddha went to the rival Mallian city of Kuśīnārā. When he felt that his last moment was fast approaching, he sent Ānanda with a message to the Mallas of Kuśīnārā who had then assembled in their *Santhāgāra* (Council-Hall) for some public affair. On receipt of the news, they flocked to the Sāla grove where the Buddha was, with their young men, girls and wives, ‘being grieved and sad and afflicted at heart’. The venerable Ānanda caused them ‘to stand in groups, each family in a group,’ and presented them to the Buddha.² After his last exhortations to the assembled brethren to work out their salvation with diligence, the Buddha entered into *parinirvāṇa*.

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² Dīgha, II, pp. 148 foll.

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The Mallas then met together in their Council-Hall to devise some means of honouring the earthly remains of the Lord in a suitable manner, and carried them with music to the shrine of the Mallas, called the Makūṭa-bandhana, to the east of their city. They treated the remains of the Tathāgata as they would treat the remains of a king of kings (Cakravarttirājā).³ When the cremation was over, they extinguished the funeral pyre with water scented with all sorts of perfumes, and collected the bones, which they placed in their Council-Hall, surrounding them ‘with a lattice work of spears and with a rampart of bows.’⁴

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³ Ibid., p. 161.

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⁴ Ibid., p. 164.

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As they had a separate principality, the Mallas of Pāvā were among the various clans that pressed their claims for a share of the remains. They sent a messenger to the Mallas of Kuśīnārā, saying: ‘The Exalted One was a Kṣatriya and so are we. We are worthy to receive a portion of the relics of the Exalted One. Over the remains of the Exalted One will we put up a sacred cairn, and in his honour will we celebrate a feast.’ Both the Mallas of Pāvā and of Kuśīnārā erected stūpas over their respective shares, and celebrated feasts.

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The Mallas appear to have usually been on friendly terms with their neighbours, the Licchavis, with whom they had many ties of kinship, though, as was inevitable, there were occasional rivalries between the two States, as, for instance, the story of Bandhula, a Mallian general, shows.⁵ Bandhula drove to Vaiśālī, the Licchavi capital, where he arrogantly misused the water of a tank where the members of the king’s families were in the habit of obtaining water for ceremonial purposes. Five hundred Licchavi Rājās set forth to capture Bandhula, but the latter ‘sped a shaft and it cleft the heads of all the chariots and passed right through the five hundred kings,’—who forthwith died in gruesome circumstances.

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⁵ Fausböll, Dhammapadam (old ed.), pp. 218–20.

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The Mallas appear to have lost their independence to that ambitious monarch of Magadha, Ajātaśatru, and their dominions were annexed to the Magadhan empire.¹

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¹ D. R. Bhandarkar, *Carmichael Lectures*, 1918, p. 79.

Linked texts (27)