The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c12.s1.t3.6

c12.s1.t3.6

Readers of the *Kunâla Jâtaka*² are aware that the Sâkiyas had a fight with their neighbours, the Koliyâs. The *casus belli* was economic. Each state wanted to monopolize the Rohinî River for irrigating its own agricultural lands. Princes of monarchical states often entered into matrimonial relations with the leaders of these *gaņas*. The *Bhadda Sâla Jâtaka*³ narrates the story of King Pasendi's proposal to the Sâkiyas to give him a daughter in marriage. We know from the same *Jâtaka* that the Lichchhavis had a fracas with the generalissimo of the Kosala monarchy. The cause was the violation of a republican sentiment. The wife of the general had bathed in the waters of their holy tank at Vesâli, and thus defiled the reservoir that was consecrated to the investiture of the republic's legislators. The "marvellous prosperity" of the Lichchhavi capital is referred to in the *Ekapanna Jâtaka*⁴ which also describes the "triple wall" of the city, "each wall a league distant from the next", — with the usual gates and watch-towers.