Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c9.s1.65

c9.s1.65

If our hypothesis about the derivation of Licchavi is accepted, some scholars may be inclined to see in this word evidence of totemism. We should note that according to Buddhist tradition the Mauryas, said to be survivors of the massacre of the Sakyas, took their name similarly from the most striking wild life in the territory in which they settled. We see no need to postulate survivals of totemism in these names, unless perhaps in the most attenuated sense, since there is no clear evidence of true totemism anywhere in the whole Vedic and Buddhist literature.