Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c10.s5.1

c10.s5.1

The *Mahājanaka Jātaka* informs us that the king, after joining the Buddhist *saṅgha*, handed over the power of the state to his commander (*senāpati*), who was to administer justice with the help of his chief judges.³ Moreover, the *Mahānārada-Kassapa Jātaka*⁴ also informs us that the king was assisted in the administration of justice by a council. These references, with the help of the Licchavian analogy and the fact that the Videhans were members of the Vajjian League, all combine to show that the council of the Videhans also tried judicial cases and inflicted punishment according to precedent.⁵ However, we lack the information with which to treat the Videhan procedure of justice in detail. There is no reason to believe that they had a system of justice in anyway resembling that ascribed by Buddhaghosa to the Vajjis, which, if it has any factual basis, must apply to the Licchavis rather than to other members of the confederacy.