Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c10.s3.34

c10.s3.34

The word Videha was thus the title of the king and probably also the name of his people. The word may be connected with *deha* which in the *Ṛg Veda* means "primarily a wall or rampart around the city,"¹ and for which we may assume an earlier form *degha*. Thus our Videhas are connected with walls or ramparts. The prefix *vi* could be taken in the privative sense,² meaning a "people without walls or ramparts" or "destroyers of walls and ramparts." The people whom Videgha Māthava led to the east of the river Sadānīrā were certainly the invaders of a foreign land and may well have been reputed for destroying the walls and ramparts of the people whom they attacked. The "destroyer of cities" is a popular epithet of Indra in the *Ṛg Veda*. The prefix *vi* may also be taken to emphasize the fact that they had walls or ramparts around their own cities. This is less likely however. Few such names, if any, begin with the prefix *vi*, though there are common adjectives, *e.g.*, *vibhāga*, *virāma*, *vijaya*, *vinaya*, etc.³