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Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c15.s1.t1: Government and Organization

Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c15.s1.t1

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Government and Organization

c15.s1.t1.1

The Moriyas were Kṣatriyas like other republican communities of the Buddhist period, and it is on this basis that they advanced their case for a share in the relics at Kusinārā. We hear of no single Moriyan king in the Buddhist sources which refer to them, except, of course, the imperial Mauryas of later times. On the other hand, there is ground to believe that they were ruled by a republican or quasi-republican form of government. Upon hearing that the Buddha had passed away, it was the Moriyas of Pipphalivana, and not an individual Moriyan ruler, who sent an envoy to the Mallas asking for a share in the remains of the Exalted One.¹ The *Buddhavamsa* also alludes to the same fact,² and the Tibetan tradition further strengthens this view that the embers went to the *Nyagrodhika* country (Pipphalivana).³

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¹ *MPS*, p. 448; *Dīgha*, ii, pp. 165ff.

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² *Buddhavamsa*, chap. xxviii, 4.

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³ Rockhill, *op. cit.*, p. 147; *cf. PHAI*, p. 194

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The *Mahāvamsa Ṭīkā* refers to them as the Moriya kings of the Moriya city. The *Ṭīkā* always mentions them in the plural, i.e. *Moriyarājānam*, and the young Moriyas are invariably called *rājakumāras* or princes.⁴ This clearly shows that the Moriyas of Pipphalivana were a republican people like the Sakyas, the Mallas, and the Licchavis, and that the college of Moriyan rulers were all called *rājās*. We have no definite evidence with regard to their internal administration and judicial system. But it would be legitimate to suggest that they had a general assembly of elders who chose a chief from amongst themselves, probably for life. He probably ran the administration of the republic with the help of a few members of the assembly, which was the source of his power. It was this body of the Moriyas which most likely sent an envoy to Kusinārā to claim a share in the relics of the Buddha. We do not know the number of the Moriyas who constituted this assembly and council.⁵

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⁴ *Vamṣaṭṭha.*, i, p. 183.

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⁵ *Cp.* Altekar, *State and Government*, pp. 121-2, 132.

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