Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c10.s4.63

c10.s4.63

Though the source, as we have seen, is very ambiguous, it is possible that three councillors and the king composed the council of the Videhans.¹ It is this body which was responsible for the public business of the republic and which recommended measures of importance to the assembly of the Videhan *rājās*. They also received the envoys of other states and decided upon matters of significance in the name of the assembly, which probably had to approve such measures. Most likely, in practice the council held the supreme power of the republic, under the supervision of the Licchavis, but in theory it was the assembly in which the ultimate authority of the internal administration of the *gaṇa* was vested. It was to this larger body that the council was responsible for its conduct in administration. In external affairs the Videhan council would have been superseded by the Licchavian council.²