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Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c15.s4: The Kālāmas of Kesaputta

Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c15.s4

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The Kālāmas of Kesaputta

Name and Early History

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The Kālāmas of Kesaputta are the least documented of the republican communities that flourished at the time of the Buddha and Mahāvīra. The striking similarity of the name of their town to the Keśins of the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* ¹ has led historians to connect these peoples with the Keśins of the Brāhmaṇic period. Kesaputta (Sanskrit *Keśaputra*) and Keśin both are connected with the Sanskrit word *keśa*, meaning hair or mane. The connection between the two seems phonetically and linguistically obvious, but a discussion of the sources is necessary before deciding the issue.

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¹ *Śat. Br.*, xi, 8, 4, 6; *cf.* Pāṇini, v, 2, 109; vi, 4, 165.

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Keśin, as the name of a people, occurs in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*, where their king is mentioned as learning from Khaṇḍika the atonement for a bad omen at the time of performing a sacrifice.² A Keśin Dārbhya or Dālbhya is a somewhat enigmatic figure.³ According to the *Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa* this inexplicable person was the son of king Uccaiḥśrava's sister.⁴ His people, according to the *Kāṭhaka Saṁhitā*, were the Pāñcālas, of whom the Keśins were one of the three branches.⁵ Dālbhya was a contemporary of a fellow sage Keśin Śātyakāmi by name.⁶

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² *Śat. Br.*, xi, 8, 4, 6ff; cf. Eggeling, *SBE*, 44, pp. 131-4; *Vedic Index* i, p. 187.

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³ *Śat. Br.*, xi, 8, 4, 1ff.

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⁴ *Jaim. Br.*, iii, 21, 1ff.

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⁵ *Kāṭh. Saṁ.*, xxx, 2; *cf. Vedic Index* i, p. 187.

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⁶ *Mait. Saṁ.*, i, 6, 5; *Tait. Saṁ.*, ii, 6, 2, 3.

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Keith and Macdonell say that in view of the fact that the early literature mentions Dārbhya as a sage, it seems doubtful whether the commentator is correct in thinking that the *Śatapatha* refers to a king and a people. A sage alone may well be meant, while the *Jaiminīya Upaniṣad Brāhmaṇa*, which refers to him as a prince, is of no great authority.⁷ They further suggest that the "later work may have assumed that the reference in the *Kāṭhaka Saṁhitā* to the Keśin people signifies kingship, but this is hardly necessary".⁸ Keith and Macdonell may be right in doubting the accuracy of the commentator about the Keśin king and a Keśin sage. But in our opinion they are over-cautious when they dismiss the *Jaiminīya Upaniṣad Brāhmaṇa* as "of no great authority," simply because it is somewhat later than the more famous *Brāhmaṇas*. Even if generally accepted as unauthentic and known to be late, the text may contain some historical information, as for example do Buddhaghosa's commentaries and the *Jātakas*.

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⁷ *Vedic Index*, i, p. 187.

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⁸ *Ibid.*, p. 187.

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We cannot say definitely in the face of the controversy discussed above, whether the Keśin of the *Śatapatha* refers to a king of the Keśins or to a sage who was a Keśin. If the text is to be believed, there were Keśin people and the question whether Dārbhya was king or sage is of no relevance for our present purpose. According to the *Kāṭhaka Saṁhitā*, as we have noticed above, the Keśins belonged to the Pāñcālas.¹ It is most likely that the Keśins were related to the Kālāmas of Kesaputta,² as were the Moriyas of Pipphalivana to the Mauryan dynasty of Magadha. We have seen that most of the republican peoples of northeast India appear to have been descended from Aryan pioneers who followed the example of Videgha Māthava³ in their eastward march. It would be quite in harmony with the texts if we suggest that some Keśins of Pāñcāla also established a settlement in the northeast, designating it after their tribal name Keśaputra or Kesaputta of the Pāli texts.

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¹ *Kāṭh. Saṁ.*, xxx, 2ff; *cf.* above, p. 231.

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² *Cf. PHAI*, pp. 99, 193.

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³ *Cf.* above, pp. 60ff.

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We are not certain about the derivation of the name Kālāma, but Kālāma is a student of the Kalāma or Kālāpa grammar in Pāṇini,⁴ and the school of Kalāpin is often mentioned with that of the Kaṭhas.⁵ Whether Kālāma has any connection with the Sanskrit word *kāla*, dark or blue-back, is not certain.

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⁴ Pāṇini, iv, 3, 104; *Mbh.*, ii, 113; *cf. Vedic Index*, i p. 187.

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⁵ Monier Williams, *Skt. -Eng. Dic., s.v. kālāpa, kālāpaka.*

Geographical Location

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The Dālbhyas who appear in the *Ṛg Veda* are referred to as settled on the banks of the Gomati,⁶ which Raychaudhuri suggests might be the Gumti which flows between the Ganges and the Ghāgrā.⁷ But it seems strange that the Ṛg Vedic text should refer to such an eastern river. Even the Ganges is referred to only a few times in the *Ṛg Veda*. In Monier Williams' opinion, the Gomati referred to in some hymns fell into the Indus.⁸ It was probably in that region that the Keśins of the *Ṛg Veda* were settled. Probably during the later Vedic period they moved to the Pāñcāla region, from where a branch of them moved further eastwards and settled at Kesaputta, sometime before the days of the Buddha.

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⁶ *ṚV*, v, 61.

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⁷ *PHAI*, p. 193.

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⁸ *ṚV*, viii, 24, 30; x, 75, 10; *cf.* Monier Williams, *Skt. - Eng. Dic., s.v.* Gomatī under go.

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The chief town of the Kālāmas, Kesaputta, is referred to as a *nigama* of the Kosalan kingdom in the *Aṅguttara Nikāya*.¹ Then we could locate Kesaputta *nigama* of the Kālāmas somewhere between the territory bounded by the river Gomatī to the west, and the river Ghāgrā to the northeast, with the Ganges to the south. Kesaputta may have been anywhere in this region south of the Moriyas or of the Mallas. We prefer to locate the Kālāmas to the south of the Mallas, below the river Ghāgrā, to the north of the Ganges and northeast of Banaras,² as such a location is consistent with Kesaputta’s being a Kosalan township. It would place them just on the borders of the other republican communities which seem to have occupied a large territory, bounded on the west by the directly governed part of the Kosalan kingdom.³ The exact location of the Kālāmas cannot be ascertained, owing to the lack of data.

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¹ *Aṅguttara*, i, p. 188.

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² *Cf. CAGIM*, map xi, pp. 444-5.

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³ *Cf.* our map A.

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*Status and Government*

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The *Aṅguttara Nikāya* and its commentary are the only known sources which allude to the status of the Kālāmas and indicate that they had a republican form of government. The former text says that once the Buddha, while touring amongst the Kālāmas and accompanied by a great body of monks, stayed “at the *nigama* of the Kālāmas, named Kesaputta”.⁴ In general, *nigama* ⁵ seems to imply a settlement somewhat smaller than a *nagara* or *pura*,⁶ and the use of this term indicates that they were quite a small people, perhaps not much more than a thousand families. In Malalasekera’s opinion Kālāma was probably the name of a *gotra* or family.⁷ This evidence would show that the region occupied by them was limited to the countryside around their town. As they are placed in the Kosalan country by the text, there is no doubt that they were under the supervision of the Kosalan king, as the Bhaggas were under king Udayana.

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⁴ *Aṅguttara*, i, p. 188.

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⁵ *Cp. nigama-sabhā, Ep. Ind.*, viii, p. 82; xv, p. 263; *cf.* Majumdar, *Corporate Life*, pp. 144-7.

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⁶ *Cf. Mahāvastu*, iii, p. 102; tr., iii, p. 101 fn. 1; *cp.*, I. B. Horner, *The Book of the Discipline*, iv, p. 379, fn. 6.

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⁷ *DPPN*, i, p. 581.

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Raychaudhuri, on the authority of a passage in the *Saṁyutta Nikāya* where Pasenadi, the king of Kosala, is spoken of as ruling at the head of a group of five *rājās*,¹ suggested that the ruler of the Kālāmas of Kesaputta was one of them.² But the difficulty in accepting such a view is very great; neither the *Aṅguttara Nikāya* nor the commentary refers to a king of the Kālāmas.³ On the other hand, when the Buddha preached at Kesaputta, he referred to the Kālāmas always in the plural, and when he was directly talking to them he addressed them only as Kālāmas. Moreover, the Kālāmas were too small a tribe to be represented on the council of five which Pasenadi headed. We do not know of any such representative body of tribes in the monarchies from our sources, though in the republican confederation of the Vajjians such a principle was followed more or less. Raychaudhuri’s claim that such a council existed in Kosala is extremely dubious and we reject it on the grounds that there is no other evidence that representation on a tribal basis was a feature of ancient Indian monarchies. Morever, even if this was the case in Kosala, the Kālāmas were too insignificant a people to figure in the royal council of five; and finally they had no king as such. The reference cited by Raychaudhuri presumably implies a group of five tributary kings or vassals.

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¹ *Saṁyutta*, i, p. 155.

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² *Cf. PHAI*, p. 99; H. C. Raychaudhuri, *Indian, Culture*, ii, p. 808.

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³ *Aṅguttara*, i, pp. 188ff; *Man. Pūr.*, i, pp. 418ff.

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Jayaswal and Bhandarkar have both discussed the question of *nigama*, and the latter has given it a great deal of attention.⁴ We do not agree with either in all their views, but agree insofar as the Kālāmas ruled their town through government by discussion. The commentary says that the Kālāmas were Khattiyas.⁵ Probably the Kālāma-Khattiya elders formed an assembly which chose a few members who carried out the administration of the town. The process of government should have been fairly simple, probably simpler than the present Indian *tahsīl* town municipalities. There was probably a *santhāgāra* at Kesaputta which was the political, social and religious centre of the *nigama* community, and probably the simple local judicial cases were also tried in this town hall.⁶

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⁴ Jayaswal, *Hindu Polity*, p. 244; Bhandarkar, *Car. Lecs.*, pp. 174-8.

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⁵ *Man. Pūr.*, i, p. 418.

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⁶ *Cf.* Rhys Davids, *Buddhist India*, p. 20; *CHI*, i, p. 177.

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There are only a few scattered references to the Kālāmas, to their famous philosopher Āḷāra, the teacher of the Buddha before the latter attained *Sambodhi*, and to Bharaṇḍu the Kālāma, once a co-disciple of the Buddha.¹ We do not know if the Kālāmas retained the independence of their *nigama* for long after Pasenadi died.² The fact that they did not claim a share in the relics of the Buddha suggests that soon after Viḍūḍabha captured the throne from his father, he annexed the territory of the Kālāmas of Kesaputta to the directly-governed Kosalan kingdom. But it is not improbable that they were indifferent towards Buddhism; if they were in fact connected with the Keśins of the *Brāhmaṇa* literature it is likely that they would be more sympathetic towards Brāhmaṇism. The only early source mentioning the Kālāmas is the *Aṅguttara Nikāya*. Their not being mentioned in the *Jātakas* suggests that they no longer existed as an ethnic *nigama* after the death of Pasenadi.

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¹ *Aṅguttara*, i, pp. 276ff; *Man. Pūr.*, i, pp. 458ff; cf. *DPPN*, i, p. 296; ii, p. 363.

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² Cf. *PHAI*, p. 99; Law, *TAI*, p. 289.

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