Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c29.27

c29.27

There are circumstances which when taken into consideration, leave no doubt as to the Hindu nationality of the Lichchhavis. Both the Videhas and the Lichchhavis had a common national designation 'the Vrijis.' In other words, they were two branches of the same nation. No one responsible will venture to suggest that the Videhas were also Tibetans. The very colonization of Northern Bihar by the Vedic Videhas is recorded.² If the Videhas were pure Hindus, a centre of Upanishad philosophy and orthodox theology, the Lichchhavis who were a ramification of the same nation could not have been barbarians. The Lichchhavis were at Vaiśālī. And the Purāṇas as we have seen connect the Vaiśālas like the Videhas with a well known Aryan dynasty. They were not 'unanointed' rulers, a term applied by Hindu writers to barbarians settled in India. The Aṅguttara Nikāya contemplates the Lichchhavi rulers to be "anointed" rulers, *i.e.*, *abhishikta*; like any other Kshattriya rulers. The Jātaka mentions the celebrated lake which was jealously guarded and in which the gaṇa (republican) rulers obtained their *Abhisheka*.³ The Buddhist literature unanimously treats them as good Kshatriyas.