Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c10.s3.13

c10.s3.13

As we have noted before, the Videhas occur quite frequently in the Sanskrit and Pāli texts, after their first mention in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*.⁷ But there are only three etymologies suggested by the ancient writers and none of them is satisfactory. In the *Taittirīya Saṃhitā* the word occurs in the sense of "cows of Videha" and the commentator takes the adjective *Vaidehī* to mean simply "having a splendid body" (*viśiṣṭa-deha-sambandhinī*).⁸ In this context the word would not refer to a place or rather "the point of a place name in this expression is not very obvious."⁹ Buddhaghosa, commenting on the name *Vedehikā*, says that "she was called Vedehikā either because she came from a Videhan family or because she was wise."¹⁰ But Vedeha in the sense of wise seems to be very unusual.¹¹ Buddhaghosa explains Ajātasattu's favourite epithet *Vedehiputto*, by saying that *Vedehī* here means "a wise woman" and not "the Videhan lady."¹² He is convinced of this because elsewhere it is stated that Ajātasattu's mother was the daughter not of a king of Videha, but of a Kosalan king,¹³ and was called Kosalādevi.¹⁴ This interpretation reveals the arduous attempt of the commentator to establish consistency in the Pāli tradition.