Tribes in Ancient India c61.s3.1

c61.s3.1

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