Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c12.s3.79

c12.s3.79

We have already discussed the eastward migrations of the Licchavis and their occupation of what had been the kingdom of Janaka during the Brāhmaṇa period.⁴ We also noted that Videgha Māthava led his people across the Sadānīrā to the east, and that the river appears to have divided the territories of Kosala and Videha. The Mallas, like the Licchavis and the Sakyas, were a new people in the region.⁵ It is feasible to suggest that, along with the Licchavis or a little earlier, the Mallas also moved towards the south from the Himālayan foothills and occupied parts of what had been Kosalan territory during the Brāhmaṇic period. In the Buddhist texts we find the Mallas occupying a tract of land between the Videhas of Mithilā and the Kosalan kingdom.⁶ It may be that Bandhula, a Malla of Kusinārā, offered his services to Kosala with a view to keeping the Kosalan king on good terms with the Mallas. The *Bhaddasāla Jātaka* further informs us that after the general had been treacherously killed along with his sons by King Pasenadi, the latter appointed Bandhula’s sister’s son, Dīgha-Kārāyana, as the commander of his armies. This man later betrayed the king to avenge his uncle and offered the royal insignia to Viḍūḍabha. Pasenadi fled and subsequently died outside the gates of Rājagaha.¹ The story points not only to the close relations between the republic and the kingdom, but also to the political intrigues going on between the two. That Mallikā after her husband Bandhula’s death, is allowed to go to her home at Kusinārā, and that her sister-in-law’s son is appointed to the place of her late husband² should not necessarily be interpreted literally. It might suggest that some Mallians, in order to avenge the death of Bandhula, allied themselves with Viḍūḍabha against king Pasenadi and the alliance achieved its purpose in Viḍūḍabha’s accession to power and Pasenadi’s death.³ We know of no source which might indicate that the Mallas were ever controlled by the king of Kosala. On the other hand, the *Majjhima Nikāya*⁴ shows that the Mallas were sovereign within their territories, as was the Kosalan king Pasenadi.