Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c10.s4.51

c10.s4.51

As earlier stated, we are unable to determine the exact number of the people who composed the Videhan Assembly. The mention of 84,000 descendants of king Makhādeva cannot be even taken to indicate the number of qualified citizens in the entire republic, as republican Videha was much smaller in size than the realm of the Licchavis. The total population might have been about 84,000 to 100,000. The *Gandhāra Jātaka* refers to Videha as including 16,000 villages.⁷ This is too large a number, for not even 600 villages could be found in north Tirhut today. The figure of 16,000 may be an old scribal error for 6,000 perhaps signifying the number of people who held farmlands in the republic and who were entitled to exercise political rights. These 6,000 may indicate the entire Kṣatriya families at Mithilā and the surrounding region of Videha, from which a number of heads of the families were chosen or automatically became members of the assembly, after the Licchavian fashion.⁸ The assembly probably did not meet more often than once a year and it was the council which convened frequently, as referred to in the *Mahāparinibbāna Sutta*.⁹