Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c32.s3: P. 54.—‘Lichchhai’

Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c32.s3

Language
English

P. 54.—‘Lichchhai’

c32.s3.1

*Riksha* would also give both *Lichchha* and *Likkha*, but we get such forms for the Lichchhavis (cf. Jaina spelling *Lekkhai*) as point to *liksha*, louse, as the origin. Manu’s *Nichchhavi* would be a local dialectical variation which is peculiar to Eastern India.

c32.s3.2

P. 63 *n*¹—मषति ।

c32.s3.3

fav=Skt. *Chyav*, Avestan *Syav*.

c32.s3.4

P. 73.—*Jauhar*.

c32.s3.5

It is derived from either *Jatu ghara* (the Maha-Bharata ‘Jatugriha,’ ‘the house of lac,’ made to entrap and burn the Pandavas) as has been suggested, or preferrably from *Jama-ghara* ‘House of Death.’ *Jauhar* is spelt as *Jama-hara* in the ‘Kanhada de Prabandha’ (a work in Old Râjasthânî), p. 94 (pointed out to me by Dr. Suniti K. Chatterji).

c32.s3.6

P. 81—‘Every man in the community had franchise’:—*citizens versus non-citizens*.

c32.s3.7

From a statement of Patañjali it is clear that in a republic there used to be slaves and artizans to whom the peculiar forms which denoted the citizens of a particular republic did not apply—नैतत्तेषां दासे वा कर्मकरे वा (See above § 31, p. 35, *n.*). This indicates that the artizans as well as slaves were not franchized. The Mauchikarnas did not keep any slaves in their state (hence the legend in Megasthenes that there were no slaves in India).

c32.s3.8

P. 82 *n.*—*Kauninda and Kanet*.

c32.s3.9

Sir G. Grierson is also of the opinion that the *Kanets* should not be identified with the *Kunindas* (L S I. vol. ix, p. 6, *n.*). The form *Kanet* is correct which was personally ascertained by me at Sipri (Simla).

c32.s3.10

P. 87—Vahika physique.

c32.s3.11

On the physique of the Vahikas we may note that the Maha-Bharata in abusing their heterodoxy (probably they had then become Mahâyanist Buddhists) quotes a parody of a song of the Vahikas which shows that their women were large-bodied and that mutton was their favourite food. “When shall I next sing the song of the Vahikas in this Sakala town, “when shall I again, dressed in fine garments in the company of fair-“complexioned large-sized women eat much mutton, pork, beef and the “flesh of fowls, asses and camels? *They who eat not mutton live in vain.*”

c32.s3.12

"So do the inhabitants, drunk with wine, sing. How can religion be "found among such people?"

c32.s3.13

At the time when the *Karṇaparvan* (Ch. xliv) was written, evidently they had become heterodox, probably Buddhists, as it says, 'the Vāhīkas 'who never perform sacrifices, whose religion has been destroyed,' 'they are 'without the Veda and without knowledge.' They are orthodox in the Śatapatha Br. (I. 7. 3. 8, Grierson, LSI, 4 n. 8), in the Upanishads which describe Śvetaketu going into the Punjab for religious tournament, and also evidently in Pāṇini.

Linked texts (3)