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TRIBES IN ANCIENT INDIA commentator, follows him in this as in other matters; and the ordinary printed editions of the Manusamhitā have generally adopted this reading. Both Jolly and Bühler have accepted the form Licchivi, but Jolly cites two MSS. and five printed editions with the form Nicchivi'. Kullüka, who probably wrote in the fifteenth century, i.e. about 600 years later than Medhātithi, and about 300 years later than Govindarāja, was probably misled by the similarity of the letters 'N' and 'L' as they were written in Bengali in the fifteenth century, and as they are still written even in modern Bengali manuscripts.
The Sanskrit inscriptions of the early Gupta emperors favour the form 'Licchavi'. În the Allahabad Stone Pillar Inscription of Samudragupta, that monarch is described as “Licchavidauhitra', 'the son of the daughter of the Licchavis',3 so we have here the same form as in the Pāli Buddhist works. The same form occurs in many other inscriptions of the Guptas, for example, in the Mathurā Stone Inscription of Candragupta II,4 the Bilsād Stone Pillar Inscription of Kumāra Gupta of the year 965 and the Bihar Stone Pillar Inscription of Skandagupta. On the other hand, the variant Licchivi occurs in the Bhitarī Stone Pillar Inscription of Skandagupta? and the Gayā Copperplate Inscription of Samudragupta 8 (which is considered to be spurious). Some coins of Candragupta I bear the name Licchavi. Moreover, in the inscriptions of the Nepal kings, who claim to be descended from the family of the Licchavis, the expression used is always Licchavikula-ketu, 'the banner (or glory) of the Licchavi family! We have seen that in the Chinese translations which are based on Sanskrit Buddhist texts, the form is Licchavi or Lecchavi; Fā-Hien speaks of them as Licchavis, 10 while in Hsüan Tsang (Beal's Records of the Western World) the form is Li-ch'e p'o, which would correspond to the form Licchavi.11 The Tibetans, who began to have
1 For the various readings see Mānava Dharmaśāstra, ed. J. Jolly, p. 325. See also Laws of Manu, Bühler, S.B.E., Vol. XXV, p. 406, n.
2 R. D. Banerjee, The Origin of the Bengali Script. Cal. Univ., 1919, p. 04, pp. 108-9. It is clear, however, that the form Nicchivi is a very old reading, as it occurs in the Sinhalese Atthakathā, which forms the basis of Buddhaghosas story.
3 Inscriptions of the Early Gupta Kings, ed. J. F. Fleet-Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. III, p. 8. 4 Ibid., p. 27. 5 Ibid., p. 43.
6 Ibid., p. 50. 7 Ibid., p. 53.
8 Ibid., p. 256. 9 Ibid., p. 177 f.n.; Indian Antiquary, Vol. IX, pp. 168ff. 10 Legge, Fā-Hien, pp. 71, 76. 11 Buddhist Records of the Western World, by S. Beal, Vol. II, p. 73.
