Tribes In Ancient India

SR No.: 007311
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
Publication Year: 1943
Total Pages: 449
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 132 MB

Page 319

THE LICCHAVIS
299 of the Rāmāyana.'1 The Rāmāyana tells us that the city of Vaiśāli was founded by Visāla, a son of Iksvāku and the heavenly nymph Alamvuşā,while the Visnupurāna substitutes Trņabindu, a later member of the Ikşvāku family, as the father of the eponymous hero who founded the city. This shows that the ruling family of Vaiśāli was traditionally believed to have been descended from the Iksvākus.
The Licchavis were also associated with the Sākyas. We read in the Karma-Sataka : that Prabodha, king of the Vrjis, gave away his two daughters, Māyā and Mahāmāyā, as brides to Śuddhodana, son of Simhahanu, and father of the Buddha. Rockhill in his Life of the Buddha (derived from Tibetan works) speaks of a tradition, according to which the Śākyas and the Licchavis were branches of the same people. 4
We now come to the mythical account of the origin of the Licchavis, which can be gathered from Buddhaghosa's Paramatthajotikā on the Khuddakapātha. It came to pass that the chief queen of the king of Benares was with child. When her time came, she was delivered, not of a child, but of a lump of flesh, ‘of the colour of lac and of bandhu and jīvaka flowers'. Fearing the displeasure of the king if he should hear of this, the other queens put the lump of flesh into a casket marked with the royal seal and placed it on the flowing waters of the Ganges. However, a certain god, wishing to provide for its safety, wrote with a piece of cinnabar on a slip of gold the words 'The child of the chief queen of the King of Benares', tied it to the casket, and replaced it in the river. The casket was discovered by an ascetic, and taken by him to his hermitage, where he cared for the lump of flesh. After the lapse of some time, the lump broke up into two pieces of flesh, which gradually assumed shape, till finally one of them became a boy resplendent like gold, and the other a girl. Whatever entered the stomach of these two infants looked as if put into a vessel of precious transparent stone (mani), so that they seemed to have no skin (nicchavi). Others said: The two were attached to each other by their skin (lină-chavi) as if they had been sewn together'; so that these infants came to be designated 'Licchavis'. The ascetic, having to nurse these two children, had to enter the village in the early morning for alms and to return when the day was far advanced. Accordingly the neighbouring cowherds, seeing
1 Jacobi, Jaina Sūtras, Pt. II, p. 321, note 3. 2 Rāmāyana, Bombay edition, Bala Kānda, Chap. 47, verses II-12. 8 Karma-Šataka, 20, ii, 7, trsl. from Tibetan by M. L. Feer. Reprint, p. 40. 4 Rockhill, Life of the Buddha (popular edition), p. 203, note.