Tribes in Ancient India c61.s5.7

c61.s5.7

In practice the rank of rājā must have been restricted to a comparatively small section of the community, because we learn from the Ekapaṇṇa Jātaka that besides the rājās, there were the uparājās, senāpatis, etc. What the real number of de facto rājās was, we do not know. The Mahāvastu³ speaks of the twice 84,000 Licchavi rājās residing within the city of Vaiśālī. The Pāli commentaries, e.g. the preambles to the Cullakāliṅga Jātaka⁴ and the Ekapaṇṇa Jātaka⁵ speak of seven thousand seven hundred and seven rājās of Vaiśālī. The Kalpasūtra speaks of only nine (Jaina Sūtras, Pt. I, S.B.E., Vol. XXII, p. 266).