[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C.](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1968) › c8.26 # Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c8.26 Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c8.26 - **Language:** English ### [c8.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1968.c8.26) In our opinion the theory of the confederating clans of the Vajjians being eight is false and the ancient sources do not contradict this conclusion. Buddhaghosa is the only source on which the theory is based.⁵ He refers to the \*aṭṭhakulikas\* of the Vajjis as one of the legal tribunals of Vesāli. It in no way follows that the eight component \*kulas\* of this tribunal were tribes. \*Kula\* has rather the sense of clan or family group and if these were tribes one would rather expect \*jana\*. The \*aṭṭhakulikas\* seem more likely to have been a body composed of the heads of eight leading families of Vesāli than of eight confederate tribes. We have not been able to trace the occurrence of the compound \*aṭṭhakulika\* in any Pāli, Sanskrit or Prākrit sources except the single reference in Buddhaghosa’s \*Sumaṅgala Vilāsinī\*. This is surely an inadequate basis for the generally held theory of the eight tribes of the Vajjian Confederacy. - [Previous: c8.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1968.c8.25) - [Next: c8.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1968.c8.27) - [Up: c8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1968.c8) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1968.c8.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1968.c8.26) · Pramāṇa