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Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c15.s3: The Bhaggas of Suṁsumāragiri

Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c15.s3

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The Bhaggas of Suṁsumāragiri

Name and Etymology

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The word Bhagga may have the sense of broken (Sanskrit *bhagna*),⁷ or may be equivalent to the Sanskrit *bhāgya*, fortune or good luck.¹ Some scholars, however, have linked the Bhaggas with the Bhargas of the Sanskrit sources.² The earliest mention of the Bhargas is made in the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*, where a Bhārgāyana prince named Kairiśi Sutvan is referred to.³ They also figure in Pāṇini, where they are grouped with the Yaudheyas.⁴ The *Bhīṣma Parva* of the *Mahābhārata* also mentions the Bhargas along with other peoples like the Āndhras, Kirātas, Kosalas, etc.⁵ At another place in the *Mahābhārata*,⁶ and also in the *Harivaṁśa*,⁷ the Bhargas are associated with the Vatsas as well as with the Niṣādas, in the list of peoples conquered by Arjuna.⁸ The *Harivaṁśa* tradition describes the Bhargas and the Vatsas as the two sons of Pratardana and the Buddhist books also associate the Bhaggas with the Vaṁsa prince Bodhi, son of king Udena, who resided in a magnificant palace built for him at Suṁsumāragiri.⁹

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⁷ *Jāt.*, i, p. 493.

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¹ *Cf.* *Pāli-Eng. Dic.*, *s.v.* *Bhagga*.

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² *PHAI*, pp. 192-3; Law, *TAI*, pp. 292-3.

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³ *Ait. Br.*, viii, 28.

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⁴ Pāṇini, iv, 1, 178.

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⁵ *Mbh.* (Poona Edn.), *Bhīṣma Parva*, chap. x, 48ff.

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⁶ *Ibid.*, ii, 30, 10.

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⁷ *Harivaṁśa*, xxix, 73.

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⁸ *Mbh.*, *Aśvamedha Parva*, chap. lxxxii, pp. 157ff, as quoted in *PHAI*, pp. 192-3.

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⁹ *Majjhima*, ii, pp. 91ff; *Jāt.*, iii, pp. 157ff.

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Raychaudhuri¹⁰ and Law¹¹ both support the connection of the Bhargas of the Sanskrit texts and the Bhaggas of the Pāli sources, and there does not seem to be any evidence which disproves such a relationship between the two. We accept this connection only as the most probable one, because no other text contradicts it. But Law's adventurous suggestion identifying the Bhaggas, Bhargas and the Bhārgavas as "one and the same people"¹² is not borne out by the Pāli texts, where the Bhaggavas appear as a caste of potters.¹³ There is also a Brāhmaṇic *gotra* name Bhārgava and quite a few people are mentioned as Bhaggavas in the Buddhist texts and commentaries.¹⁴ There is a great possibility of the Bhargas and the Bhaggas being of the same ethnic group, and it may be possible that these people had more than one settlement. But we strongly dispute Law's suggestion of linking the Bhārgavas also with them. Bharga is apparently a simple ethnic name, while Bhārgava is a secondary formation derived from the name of the legendary *ṛṣi* Bhṛgu.

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¹⁰ *PHAI*, pp. 192ff.

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¹¹ Law, *TAI*, pp. 292ff.

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¹² *Loc. cit.*

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¹³ *Majjhima*, ii, pp. 237ff; *Jāt.*, ii, p. 80.

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¹⁴ *Dīgha*, iii, pp. 1ff; *Sum. Vil.*, i, p. 35; *Therīgāthā Comm.*, p. 2; *cf.* tr. *Dialogues*, iii, p. 7 fn 3.

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On the authority of the epic and the *Apadāna*, Raychaudhuri located the Bhaggas in the Vindhyan region between the Yamunā and the Śoṇa rivers.¹ But Malalasekera proposed a more reasonable, though still vague, location of their territory, somewhere between Vesāli and Sāvatthi.² Their connection with the kingdom of the Vaṁsas (Vatsas), and the fact of their having a republican constitution, would suggest that the Bhaggan territory lay to the north of the Vaṁsan capital, Kosāmbī, and to the west of Banaras. The kingdom of Kosala lay to the north of the Bhaggan land.³ Thus, they should be located somewhere north of the river Yamunā and south of the Ganges, not far north of Kosāmbī or west of Prayāga. As they seem to have been under the control and influence of the kingdom of Vatsa, they probably inhabited some part of that kingdom. We suggest that their location between the two great rivers seems to be most appropriate, despite the objection that it is separated by Kāsi and the Kosalan kingdom on the east, and north from the other republican peoples—the Licchavis, Mallas, Moriyas Koliyas, and Sakyas.⁴

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¹ *PHAI*, p. 193.

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² *DPPN*, s.v., Suṁsumāragiri.

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³ *Cf.* our map A.

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⁴ *Cf.* Basham's map in *Ājīvikas*; C. C. Davies, *Historical Atlas*, map ii; our map A.

Status and Government

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There are a number of references to the Bhaggas of Suṁsumāragiri in connection with the visits of the Buddha in the early part of his career.⁵ Bhagga appears to be the name of both the people and the land they occupied,⁶ including their capital town Suṁsumāragiri with its surrounding region. Some of the *Vinaya* rules for the monks were laid down there,⁷ and there are other scattered references to the Bhaggas and their country.¹ The *Majjhima Nikāya* also contains at least three *suttas* that were delivered at Suṁsumāra Hill.² The *Dhonasākha Jātaka* was also narrated at the Bhaggan capital.³ Moreover, there are a few references to them in the *Saṁyutta Nikāya*⁴ and other sources.⁵

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⁵ *Aṅguttara*, ii, p. 61; iii, pp. 295-7; iv, pp. 85, 228ff; v, pp. 228-9, 232; *Majjhima*, ii, p. 91; etc.; *cf.* *DPPN*, ii, p. 1172.

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⁶ *Majjhima*, ii, p. 91; *Jāt.*, iii, p. 157; *cf.* *DPPN*, ii, p. 345.

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⁷ *Vinaya*, v, p. 145.

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¹ *Ibid.*, ii, pp. 127; iv, pp. 115, 198.

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² *Majjhima*, i, pp. 95ff, 323ff; ii, pp. 91ff.

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³ *Jāt.*, iii, pp. 157ff.

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⁴ *Saṁyutta*, iii, p. 1; iv, p. 116.

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⁵ *Pap. Sūd.*, i, p. 292; *Sārattha.*, ii p. 181. *Dhammapadaṭṭha.*, iii, pp. 137ff.

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Most of the sources mentioned above merely strengthen the evidence for the existence of the Bhaggas and their chief town Suṁsumāragiri at the time of the Buddha, without giving much information about their political institutions. Yet one significant fact emerges from the study of the Bhaggas, that they had no hereditary kings, like the Vatsas, the Kosalans and the Magadhans. This suggests that they were a non-minarchical community like the Bulis, Moriyas, Koliyas, etc. However, they were not one of the claimants for the remains of the Buddha at his death. Hence, the Bhaggas might not have been absolutely free, other possible alternatives are that they were either too far away and had not heard the news, or that they were not very sympathetic to Buddhism. The mention in the *Majjhima Nikāya*,⁶ the *Vinaya Piṭaka*,⁷ and the *Dhonasākha Jātaka*⁸ of the Vatsan prince Bodhi's having a palace called Koṅkaṇḍa built for himself at Suṁsumāragiri could suggest the control and influence of the Vatsan king on the Bhaggas.

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⁶ *Majjhima*, ii, pp. 91ff; *cf.* *Pap. Sūd.*, ii, p. 739.

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⁷ *Vinaya*, ii, p. 127; iii, p. 199.

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⁸ *Jāt.*, iii, p. 157.

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The *Jātaka* tells us that the architect who built this palace was blinded so that he could not build another like it.⁹ The *Dhammapada* Commentary, however, dramatically narrates that the architect had been warned of this by Bodhi's friend, and that he escaped on a magic bird.¹⁰ We do not believe that there is any truth in either version, which contains a widespread theme in folk tradition, or that such a magnificant palace even existed at Suṁsumāragiri. But the significant point, attested by almost all the sources, is that a Vatsan prince lived at the Bhaggan capital, apparently as a viceroy of his father. The texts do not explicitly state this, but the fact that the prince lived there, and erected a building at the Bhaggan capital, would strongly suggest that the Bhaggas were not free—at least in their external affairs and foreign policy. It is possible then that they were a republican tribe with modified independence.

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⁹ *Ibid.*, pp. 157-8.

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¹⁰ *Dhammapadaṭṭha.*, iii, pp. 134ff.

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As usual the commentaries give a fanciful etymology of the chief city of the Bhaggas. They state that it was so called because when it was being built a crocodile (*suṁsumāra*) made a noise in a lake nearby.¹ The late *Apadāna* mentions the Bhaggas with the Kārushas in a list of tribes.² This throws no light on the republican institutions of this political community, but does show that the Bhaggas were remembered as a separate ethnic group. Later generations may have remembered this tribe, because of its internal independence and republican institutions, even though it was subordinate to the Vatsan king.

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¹ *Pap. Sūd.*, i, p. 292; *Sārattha.*, ii, p. 181.

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² *Apadāna*, ii, p. 359.

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We know nothing of their assembly and the council, but we presume that they had such bodies like the other republican tribes of the time. Nothing is known of their administration of public business and dispensation of justice. Probably they appointed a chief who presided over the Bhaggan assembly and carried out the administration of the republic with the help of a few Bhagga elders. It is likely that they did not retain their freedom long and fell to the King of the Vatsas, as did the Sakyas to the Kosalan king. We hear of no incidents or quarrels of the Bhaggas with neighbouring peoples. This may be because they had already been assimilated into the kingdom of Udayana, as the Buddha visited Suṁsumāragiri only in the early years of his preaching career. But possibly they lost freedom during the reign of Udayana's successor for, as we have shown, from the distribution of the Buddha's relics we cannot disprove that they were independent at the time. (However, as an independent republican tribe, the Bhaggas vanished from the map of India about the time the Buddha breathed his last.)

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