State and Government in Ancient India c13.71

c13.71

Some doubts arise as to the nature of the Śākya state. Some references in the Buddhist canonical literature suggest that the Śākyas had a monarchy. Bhaddiya, who was a king in Buddha's time, takes a week to arrange for the succession to his kingdom when he decides to enter the Holy Order. We, however, know that each member of the Kshatriya aristocracy, which ruled these eastern states, was entitled to call himself a *rājā*, and Bhaddiya may have been a *rājā* in that restricted sense of the term. Jātaka evidence shows that the Śākyas had an Assembly Hall, where all of them used to meet and decide important questions of peace, war and alliance. It does not refer to a hereditary king ruling over the whole state.