Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c10.s3.70

c10.s3.70

Bhandarkar mentions the Videhas only once, as a member of the Vajjian Confederacy.⁶ Similarly, Majumdar refers to them once,⁷ and treats only of the Licchavian institutions in detail, perhaps implying that the same applied to the Videhans. Jayaswal also mentions them occasionally,⁸ and interprets Kauṭilya’s *Vṛjika* as referring to the Videhas alone.⁹ Altekar also mentions them several times and regards them, along with the Sakyas, the Mallas and the Licchavis, as comparatively larger republics than the Bhaggas, the Bulis, the Koliyas and the Moriyas.¹ Then he comments merely that “the confederation of the Licchavis and the Videhas had executive body of 18”.² We know that the Videhas were a large republic but there is no direct evidence to support the statement that the Licchavis and the Videhas had such a joint executive body. The Jaina sources indicate 18 (or 36) as being the number of the council of the Vajjian confederacy.³ It seems that Altekar mistakenly applies this figure to the Licchavi-Videha Confederation, as he gives no source to support his claim. Moreover, there is no evidence to show that the Licchavis and the Videhas formed a political alliance apart from their common membership of the Vajjian Confederacy.⁴ H. C. Raychaudhuri also makes mention of the Videhas and comments: “As in Rome, so in Videha, the overthrow of the monarchy was followed by the rise of a republic—the Vajjian Confederacy.”⁵ Here again, the emphasis is on the Confederacy. The fact, of their changing from monarchy to republic however, was pointed out for the first time by Rhys Davids, the earliest champion of the republics which flourished at the time of the Buddha.⁶