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Tribes in Ancient India c61.s3: Manners and Customs

Tribes in Ancient India c61.s3

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Manners and Customs

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We have already seen that the Licchavis were included in the great Vajjian confederacy. But sometimes Vajji (Skt. Vṛji) and Licchavi were used indiscriminately as synonyms. At the time the Buddha lived, ‘the Vajjis were divided into several clans such as the Licchavis, the Vaidehis, the Tīrabhuktis and so on, and the exact number of those clans would appear to have been eight, as criminals were arraigned before the Aṭṭhakūlakā or eight clans, which would appear to have been a jury composed of one member from each of the separate divisions of the tribe’.⁵

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⁵ Cunningham, *Ancient Geography of India*, p. 447.

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All these Vajjis lived in great amity and concord, and this unity coupled with their martial instincts and the efficiency of their martial institutions made them great and powerful amongst the nations of North-Eastern India.⁶ Their sympathy for one another was exemplary. If one Licchavi fell ill, the other Licchavis came to see him. The whole clan would join in any auspicious ceremony performed in the house of one of their number; if any foreigner of rank and power paid a visit to the Licchavi capital, they would all go out in a body to receive him and do him honour.¹

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⁶ *Buddhist Suttas*, S.B.E., Vol. XI, p. 3; see also Turnour, *Pāli Buddhistical Annals*, No. 5, *J.A.S.B.*, Dec. 1838, p. 992.

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¹ *Sumaṅgalavilāsinī* (P.T.S.), II, pp. 517-8.

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The young Licchavis were handsome in appearance and fond of brilliant colours in their dress and equipages.² We have already seen how their splendour impressed the Buddha when he first met them. We have a detailed account of the attire of the Licchavi nobles in the *Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta*, which describes how the Licchavi nobles went out for the last time to meet the Buddha. Apparently the Licchavis suited the colour of their clothes and ornaments to the tint of their complexions, and dressed themselves in dark blue (*nīla*), yellow (*pīta*), red (*lohita*), or white (*odāta*) accordingly.³ Exactly the same description of the colours favoured by the Licchavis is given in the *Aṅguttara Nikāya*,⁴ which shows that they wore these colours not only on festive occasions but in their ordinary daily life also. Once while the Buddha was staying at the Kūṭāgāraśālā in the Mahāvana, five hundred of the Licchavis were seated around him. Some of them were *nīla* or blue all over in clothes and ornaments, and similarly others were yellow, red or white. We may compare these descriptions with the more detailed account in the *Mahāvastu* of the colours favoured by the Licchavis: ‘There are Licchavis with blue horses, blue chariots, blue reins and whips, blue sticks, blue clothes, blue ornaments, blue turbans, blue umbrellas and with blue swords, blue jewels, blue footwears and blue everything befitting their youth.’⁵ In the same terms the *Mahāvastu* speaks of the Licchavis decked all in yellow (*pīta*) and in light red, the colour of the Bengal *mādār* (*mañjiṣṭha*), in red (*lohita*), in white (*śveta*), in green (*harita*), and some in variegated colours (*vyāyukta*).⁶

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² Watters, On Yuan Chwang, Vol. II, p. 79.

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³ *Dīgha Nikāya*, Vol. II, p. 96; *Buddhist Suttas*, S.B.E., Vol. XI, p. 31.

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⁴ *Aṅguttara Nikāya*, P.T.S., Pt. III, p. 239.

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⁵ *Mahāvastu*, Vol. I, p. 259.

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⁶ We have here followed the interpretation, suggested by Senart, of *Vyāyukta* (Le *Mahāvastu*, note, p. 574); this meaning, however, is very doubtful.

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Perhaps the Licchavis were divided into separate septs as Senart suggested, distinguished by the colour worn by each; otherwise it is difficult to explain why the same colours should be preferred for the trappings of the horses and decorations of their carriages, as well as the articles of dress adorning their own persons. There was moreover a profusion of gold and jewels in everything in their equipage—carriages drawn by horses, gold-bedecked elephants, palanquins of gold set with all kinds of precious stones.

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All this bespeaks a prosperous people, and it might be expected that they would be given to luxury and indolence. But this was not their character at the time when the Buddha lived and preached among them. The *Saṃyutta Nikāya* preserves this saying, which is attributed to the Buddha: ‘Look ye Bhikkhus here, how these Licchavis live sleeping with logs of wood as pillows, strenuous and diligent (*appamattā*), zealous and active (*ātāpino*) in archery. Ajātasattu Vedehiputto, the Magadhan king, can find no defect in them, nor can he discover any cause of action (against them). Should the Licchavis, O Bhikkhus, in the time to come, be very delicate, tender and soft in their arms and legs, should they sleep in ease and comfort on cushions of the finest cotton until the sun is up in the heavens, then the Magadhan king, Ajātasattu Vedehiputto, will find defects and will discover cause of action.’¹ This testimony of the Buddha goes to show that the Licchavis were hardy and active, ardent and strenuous in their military training.

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¹ *Saṃyutta Nikāya* (P.T.S.), Pt. II, pp. 267-8. ² *Divyāvadāna* (Cowell and Neil), p. 136. ³ *Psalms of the Brethren*, Mrs. Rhys Davids, p. 106; *Theragāthā*, V, 119. ⁴ *Aṅguttara Nikāya* (P.T.S.), Pt. III, p. 76.

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The Licchavis used to kill animals on the 8th, 14th and 15th day of the lunar months and eat their flesh.²

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They were fond of manly pastimes such as elephant training and hunting. Among the *Psalms of the Brethren* (*Theragāthā*), we find one composed by Vajjiputtaka, the son of a Licchavirājā at Vaiśālī, who, in his early life, was engaged in training elephants.³ The *Aṅguttara Nikāya* narrates how a large number of Licchavi youths, armed with bows, ready with strings, set and surrounded by a pack of hounds, were roving about in the Mahāvana, but finding the Buddha seated at the foot of a tree in the forest, threw away their bows and arrows and sending away the pack of hounds sat by the Great Teacher, subdued by his presence. A Licchavi of advanced years, named Mahānāma, who came to pay his respects to the Buddha, expressed his great wonder at the sight of the Licchavi youths, full of life and vivacity, notorious for their insolent and wanton conduct in the city, thus sitting silent and demure, in an attitude of reverence before the Great Teacher. ‘The Licchavi youths, O Lord!’ he goes on, ‘are rude and rough and whatever presents are sent to the families, sugarcane or plums, cakes, sweetmeats or preparations of sugar, these they plunder and eat up, throw dust at the ladies of respectable families and girls of good families; such young men are now all silent and demure, are doing obeisance with joined palms to yourself, O Lord.’⁴ ‘In the Buddha’s time, the young Licchavis of the City’, says Watters, ‘were a free, wild, set, very handsome and full of life, and Buddha compared them to the gods in Indra’s heaven. They dressed well, were good archers, and drove fast carriages, but they were wanton, insolent and utterly irreligious.’¹ This is an exaggeration and is probably based on the Chinese translations of such passages as the one in the *Lalitavistara*, where some of the Tuṣita gods point out the defects in the character of the Vaiśālans when their city was recommended by others among them as a suitable place of birth for the Bodhisattva.² Whatever might have been the opinions of these ‘sons of heaven’ before the birth of the Buddha, they must later have changed their opinions about the people of Vaiśālī, who showed such remarkable veneration towards the Buddha and received such marked favour from him. We may, however, assume that the Licchavis were rather independent in character and would not easily accept a subordinate position to any one, whether in politics, religion, or ordinary daily life.

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¹ Watters, *On Yuan Chwang*, Vol. II, p. 79.

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² *Lalitavistara*, ed. S. Lefmann, Vol. I, p. 21.

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Then again the statement that the Licchavis did not respect their elders or were irreligious, is in direct contradiction to what the Buddha said about their regard for elders to Vassakāra, the Magadhan minister.³

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³ *Dialogues of the Buddha*, Pt. II, p. 80.

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The Licchavi youths went to distant countries for their education. We read of a Licchavi named Mahāli who went to Taxila to learn *śilpa* or arts. It is said that he in his turn trained as many as 500 Licchavis who also, when educated, took up the same task and in this way education spread far and wide among the Licchavis.⁴

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⁴ Fausböll, *Dhammapada* (old ed.), p. 211.

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Nor were the fine arts neglected. Artisans such as tailors, goldsmiths and jewellers must have been much in demand in the city of Vaiśālī to furnish the gay robes of the ‘seven thousand seven hundred and seven’ rājās or nobles. The art of architecture also was much developed in Vaiśālī; the magnificent palaces of the Licchavis are spoken of in the *Lalitavistara*.⁵ They were equally enthusiastic in the building of temples, shrines, and monasteries for the Bhikkhus; and we are told that the Bhikkhus themselves superintended the construction of these buildings for the Order. The Licchavis of Vaiśālī built many *caityas* or shrines inside and outside their great city, and we have already seen with what great liberality they gave the best among them to the Buddha and the Buddhist Church. That these *caityas* were beautiful and fine buildings, where people might wish to dwell indefinitely, was the expressed opinion of the Buddha, as we see from a passage in the *Dīgha Nikāya*.¹

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⁵ Chap. 3, p. 23 (*Bibl. Indica* Series).

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¹ Buddhist Suttas, S.B.E., Vol. XI, p. 58.

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About the marriage rites of the Licchavis, it is said in the Tibetan books that there were rules restricting the marriage of all girls born in Vaiśālī to that city alone. They state, ‘The people of Vaiśālī had made a law that a daughter born in the first district could marry only in the first district, not in the second or third; that one born in the middle district could marry only in the first and second; but that one born in the last district could marry in any of the three; moreover, that no marriage was to be contracted outside Vaiśālī.’² Certain passages in the *Bhikkhunī Vibhaṅga Saṅghādisesa*³ indicate that a Licchavi could ask the Licchavi-gaṇa or corporation of Licchavis to select a suitable bride for him, or to try a case of adultery. The punishment for a woman who broke her marriage vow was very severe; the husband could even kill her with impunity. But an adulterous woman could save herself from punishment by entering the congregation of nuns.⁴ The Licchavis appear to have had a high idea of female chastity; violation of chastity was a serious offence amongst them. The Buddha says that ‘no women or girls belonging to their clans are detained among them by force or abduction’.?⁵ The *Petavatthu Aṭṭhakathā* gives the story of a Licchavi rājā named Ambasakkhara who was enamoured of a married woman, whose husband he engaged as an officer under him; but he was foiled in his attempts to gain her love.⁶

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² Rockhill, *Life of the Buddha*, p. 62.

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³ *Bhikkhunī Vibhaṅga Saṅghādisesa*, II, *Vinaya Piṭaka*, ed. H. Oldenberg, Vol. IV, pp. 225-6.

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⁴ *Ibid.*, p. 225.

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⁵ Buddhist Suttas, S.B.E., Vol. XI, pp. 3-4.

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⁶ *Petavatthu Aṭṭhakathā*, Sinhalese edition, Simon Hewavitarana’s Bequest Series, No. 1, pp. 154-6; and see B. C. Law, *The Buddhist Conception of Spirits*, 2nd Ed., pp. 73-5.

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The Licchavis observed various festivals, of which the *Sabba-rattivāro* or *Sabbaratticāro* was the most important. At this festival, songs were sung, and drums and other musical instruments were used.⁷ When a festival took place at Vaiśālī, all the people used to enjoy it, and there were dancing, singing and recitations.⁸

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⁷ *Saṃyutta Nikāya*, Vol. I, pp. 201-2.

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⁸ *Theragāthā* Commentary, v. 62; *Psalms of the Brethren*, p. 63.

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