Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c13.s2.82

c13.s2.82

The *Kuṇāla Jātaka* informs us that "the Sākiya and the Koliya tribes had the river Rohiṇī, which flows between the cities of Kapilavatthu and Koliya, confined by a single dam and by means of it cultivated their crops".³ This river has been identified with the modern river Kohāna by Cunningham.⁴ Thus, the river Rohiṇī formed the eastern boundary of the Sakyan territory; beyond it, probably somewhat to the south, was the land of the Koliyas. It is probable that the Koliyan territory did not stretch as far north as did the Sakyan. On the north-east the Sakyas would border the territory of the Mallas of Kusinārā; and the Moriyas would be to the east of the Koliyas.⁵ To the south and west of the Sakyan territory lay the kingdom of Kosala, for in the *Majjhima Nikāya* King Pasenadi comes from Nangaraka, a Kosalan town, to Medataḷumpa, one of the Sakyan townships, without transversing any intervening territory of another people.⁶ But a much more important statement, in the *Bhaddasāla Jātaka*, clearly demarcates the boundaries of Kosala during the earlier part of Viḍūḍabha's reign. The Buddha had been intervening between the Sakyas and Viḍūḍabha, who was marching with his army towards the Sakyan capital. The Buddha reached "a spot near Kapilavatthu, and sat beneath a tree that gave scanty shade. Hard by that place, a huge and shady banyan tree stood on the boundary of Viḍūḍabha's realms."¹ This passage not only indicates the limits of the two territories, but also shows that the Sakyan territory was either to the west or to the south of Sāvatthi. It is likely that the boundary of the Sakyas to the west was not very extensive, as the Buddha chose a spot in the Sakyan land "near Kapilavatthu."² Another significant fact is that the shady banyan tree "stood on the boundary of Viḍūḍabha's realms," indicating the boundary between the Kosalan and the Sakyan territories. The passage would also suggest that the Sakyan land reached further to the north of Kapilavatthu than to the west or south. References to the great forest and hills, in connection with the Sakyan capital, suggest that their territory stretched right into the Himālayas and that there was a forest north of it.³ In short, we may say that the Sakyan territory lay along the foothills of the Himālayas; to the west and south lay the kingdom of Kosala,⁴ and to the east the land of the Koliyas of Rāmagāma. The river Rohiṇī divided the land of the two republican peoples. In Rhys Davids' opinion, "it was no doubt in this plain, stretching about fifty miles from east to west, and thirty or forty miles to the southward from the foot of Himālaya Hills, that the majority of the [Sakyan] clan were resident."⁵