Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c15.s3.t1: Name and Etymology

Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c15.s3.t1

Language
English

Name and Etymology

c15.s3.t1.1

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

c15.s3.t1.2

⁷ *Jāt.*, i, p. 493.

c15.s3.t1.3

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

c15.s3.t1.4

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

c15.s3.t1.5

³ *Ait. Br.*, viii, 28.

c15.s3.t1.6

⁴ Pāṇini, iv, 1, 178.

c15.s3.t1.7

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

c15.s3.t1.8

⁶ *Ibid.*, ii, 30, 10.

c15.s3.t1.9

⁷ *Harivaṁśa*, xxix, 73.

c15.s3.t1.10

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

c15.s3.t1.11

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

c15.s3.t1.12

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.

c15.s3.t1.13

¹⁰ *PHAI*, pp. 192ff.

c15.s3.t1.14

¹¹ Law, *TAI*, pp. 292ff.

c15.s3.t1.15

¹² *Loc. cit.*

c15.s3.t1.16

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

c15.s3.t1.17

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

c15.s3.t1.18

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

c15.s3.t1.19

¹ *PHAI*, p. 193.

c15.s3.t1.20

² *DPPN*, s.v., Suṁsumāragiri.

c15.s3.t1.21

³ *Cf.* our map A.

c15.s3.t1.22

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

Linked texts (9)