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to explore the land of Pakhtu (Afgans) and some of the persians settled in India as far as to Magadha (Bihar) which was at that time largely inhabited by Vratyas [65,66]. The earliest reference to the people of Nisibism in Indian literature occurs in Brahmanic Sanskrit work,
Manusmriti, a chapter X, verse 12, in which they have been named as Nicchibi, a royal race along with Khasa, Karana etc. In the Bhavishya Purana. Ch.130, verse 33-65, Niksubha is described as a daughter of the sage Rijisva of the Mihira gotra or Sokar clan, and under the name of Havani as married to Surya, the Sun-God. Probably Nksubha represents the name of a Persian girl of Nisibis.
In the Pali works they have been called as Licchavis, , which seems to be a softened form of Nicchibi or Nisibis and living in large numbers in Vaisali. Mahaparinibbana Sutta, ch. 1 mentions that Ajatasatru, the Magadha king, tried to expel these Licchavis from his place but could not win over them. This leads one to believe that they descended from a civilized race. By the end of 4th Century Licchavis became very powerful in India and Nepal. An Allahabad pillar Inscription (vide Fleet's Copus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. III, p.16 ) describes that a Licchavi pprincess named Kumara Devi was married to Chandra Gupta I, abot 319 AD. Jayadeva I, the first historical member of the Licchavi tribe ruled in Nepal AD 330-355, (vide Fleet, p.135). As late as about 700 AD there reigned in the east in Varendra (North-eastern Bengal) a king named Simha of Licchavi race (vide -Lama Taranatha's Geshichte des Buddhismus von Shiefner, p.146).
According to Pag-sam-jon-zang, Gyal-rab-sal-wahi-long [67] and other Tibetan books, the earliest Kings of Tibet fromNya-thi-tsau-po downwards belonged to the Li-tsa-byi race which is again a modified form of Licchavi. The first king of Tibet was Nyathi-tsan-po was a wanderer from foreign country and lived between 4th and 1st century BC. It is probable that during the occupation of Sogdiana [67] and the neighbouring places by Alexander the Great, the Bacytrian Greek Kings and subsequently the Scythians (the Yue-chi) abot 150BC swome Persians from Nisibis (off Heart) migrated to Tibet, the Himalayan regions. The custom of exposing the dead to be devoured by wild animals, as was previled in Vaisali was found also in Tibet. This system seems to have been introduced by Licchavi immigrants from Persia.
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