Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 162

137
Sec. IX]
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
eighteen republican chiefs of Kasi and Kosala under the leadership of king Cetaka with their headquarter at Vaisali to fight the aggressive war waged by king Kunika.
It appears from the Kalpa Sutra that this confederation of the Mallakis and the Licchavis lasted for more than sixteen years upto the great demise of Lord Mahāvīra which was celebrated by them through their joint illumination of lights.
The natural alliance between nine Mallakis and nine Licchavis as mentioned in the BhS suggests that the constitution of their confederation was based on the principle of parity of members having equal rights and duties in the affairs of their united republican state in the face of a common danger of war.
It is learnt from the Buddhist works that the Licchavi state with its capital at Vaišali was the most powerful republic of the Vajjian confederation. Yet it had to make an alliance with the independent but less important state of the Mallakis of Kusinara and Para by giving them equal representation in the federal council, probably due to the exigencies of her war with Magadha.
Constitution of the Licchavis
Though the BhS gives an idea of the Ganas (republics) of the Licchavis and the Mallakis, yet it does not throw any light upon their respective constitutions and forms of govern ment. The text only reveals that the head of the Licchavi Republic of Vaisali was a king or consul (Raja) who was assisted by a body of high dignitaries, such as, Ganarajas, Gananayagas Dandanayaga, Düya, Samdhivala, Bhada, Cadagara etc., in his both civil and military functions.
It makes an indirect reference to the system of conscription* introduced and enforced by Vaisali Republic in times of war for the defence of the state by relating the story of Nagaputra
1 Kalpa Sutra 128; J. B. O. R. S. 1, 103. Dighanikaya-Mahaparinivvana Suttanta (Trans. adopted from Rhys Davids, Dialogues of the Buddha Pt. II, pp. 79-85; Cf. S. B. E, Vol. XI., pp. 3-6, Jataka 1, 143 (7). 34 BhS, 7, 9, 303.
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