Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c13.1

c13.1

The simple fact that the Śākyamuni was the founder of their faith inspired the Buddhists to depict the Sakyas as the noblest of peoples, and Kapilavatthu as a most grand and luxuriant city, indeed, the very paradise of Jambūdvīpa.¹ This is not very surprising, keeping in view how the Jainas exalted the Nāyas, a humble clan though it was, bordering on the centre of the powerful Licchavis.² The shadow of the mighty Kosalan King Pasenadi, and more so of his son Viḍūḍabha, has rendered the real status of the Sakyas historically vague and politically uncertain. The information about their political institutions is at best fragmentary and at times contradictory. Some of the references indicate that the Sakyan territory had already become a part of the Kosalan kingdom at the time of the Buddha. Other references clearly show that the Sakyas of Kapilavatthu were an independent republican tribe and that their territory, though bordering on the Kosalan kingdom, was distinct from it. The Sakyas had sovereign rights within their territory before they were ruthlessly massacred at the hands of Viḍūḍabha and their city razed to the ground.