Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c15.s3.t2.20

c15.s3.t2.20

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.)