Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c11.58

c11.58

If Kuṇḍapura was scarcely more than a halting place of caravans or a village, it is evident that the sovereign of that place could at best have been a petty chieftain.¹ Indeed, though the Jainas fondly imagine Siddhārtha to have been a powerful monarch and depict his royal state in glowing but typical colours, their statements, if stripped of all rhetorical ornaments, bring out the fact that Siddhārtha was but a mere chief of a small clan. We do not believe that the older texts ever designate him as “the king of Kuṇḍapura or Kuṇḍagāma.” We have thoroughly examined the text of the *Kalpa Sūtra* where he is usually mentioned merely as *Siddhattha-Khattiya*.² He is referred to as *Siddhatthe-rāja* also, but only when the servants of the household address him or when his wife, who is definitely always designated as *Tisalāe-Khattiyāṇīe*, speaks to him. In some cases, even when both Siddhārtha and his wife Trisalā are mentioned together, he is called a *rājā*, but she is still called by the humbler designation of *Khattiyāṇīe*.³