Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c15.s4.t2.15

c15.s4.t2.15

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.