Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c15.s4.t2.5

c15.s4.t2.5

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.