Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c9.s1.34

c9.s1.34

V. A. Smith believed that the "Licchavis were really a Tibetan tribe which settled in the plains during pre-historic times." ³ In his opinion, "much more significant are the undoubted similarities between the customs of the Tibetans and those of the Licchavis, which are recorded in the important matters of sepulture and judicial procedure." ⁴ He further adds, "it will be observed that in Tibet, as at Vaiśālī, cremation, burial and exposure are all practised. Similiarly, the Mongols are said to dispose of their dead in all these ways." ⁵ Smith bases this argument on the authority of Turnour ⁶ and Sarat Chandra Das,⁷ and comments that "one will agree with him (Das) after reading both these accounts (of Turnour and Das) that the ancient procedure at Vaiśālī is substantially identical with the modern procedure at Lhāsā.'' ¹ We are unable to trace the article by Das on which Smith based his hypothesis, and it seems never to have been published. Moreover, no theory can be soundly established merely by comparing an ancient system with a modern one. The detailed legal procedure of ancient Vesāli may well have been a mere ideal in the mind of the commentator Buddhaghosa, based on a tradition transmitted over centuries and containing recollections of a legal system which was actually much more simple.