Tribes in Ancient India c61.s5.4

c61.s5.4

Kauṭilya says¹ that the Licchavis and various other tribes were ‘rāja-śabda-upajīvinaḥ’. This apparently means that among these peoples each citizen had the right to call himself a rājā, ‘king’, i.e. a dignitary who did not owe allegiance or pay revenue to any one else. Each citizen not merely looked upon himself as a rājā, but considered that his title should be recognised not only by his fellow clansmen but also by the other people of India. This is corroborated by the description of the Licchavis given in the Lalitavistara, which says that at Vaiśālī there was no respect for age, nor for position, whether high or middle or low, each one thinking that he was a rājā.² Kauṭilya’s account shows that this designation of each individual clansman was not confined to the Licchavis, but was shared by them with many other warrior peoples of Northern India. Śavaraswāmī in his commentary on the Pūrvamīmāṃsā Sūtra, Book II, says that the word ‘rājā’ is a synonym for Kṣatriya, and states that even in his time the word was used by the Andhras to designate a Kṣatriya. On his authority, it can be said that the word ‘rājā’ in early times designated a member of the Kṣatriya caste, and subsequently acquired the specialised meaning of ‘king’.