Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c9.s5.54

c9.s5.54

The first positive evidence for the existence of the Licchavis in ancient India comes from unorthodox sources — the Pāli Canon, the *Mahāvastu*, the *Cīvaravastu* and the Jaina scriptures. The earliest important political event for which evidence survives is contained in a tradition preserved in Hsüan Tsang² and discussed by H. C. Raychaudhuri.³ The tradition, whether true or not, records that during the reign of the famous Bimbisāra the Vesālians were audacious enough to invade Magadhan territory across the Ganges. The *Cīvaravastu* not only refers to Bimbisāra’s affair with Āmrapālī, but also records his marriage with the daughter of the Licchavian general Siṁha.⁴ According to the text, both these events involved fighting between the Licchavis and the Magadhan king. The Tibetan sources, analysed by Rockhill,⁵ contain the following epidsode of Bimbisāra and Āmrapālī which occurs in the *Dulva*.⁶