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THE LICCHAVIS
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and wickedness. After this exhortation, the prince's heart miraculously became filled with love and kindness
Among the Licchavi women who were converted by the Buddha, we read of Sihā, Jenti, Vāsetthĩ, and Ambapālī. - Sihā, a niece of the Licchavi general Siha, was born at Vaiśāli at the time of Gotama Buddha. When she attained years of discretion, one day she heard the Master preaching. She became a believer, obtained the consent of her parents to enter the Order, and eventually became an Arahat.2
The case of Jenti or Jentā was similar. She was born in a princely family of the Licchavis at Vaiśālī, and won Arahatship after hearing the Dhamma preached by the Buddha. Another Licchavi woman, Väsitthi, was born in a clansman's family at Vaiśālī. Her parents gave her in marriage to a clansman's son of equal position. She had a son. When the child was able to run about, he died. Overwhelmed with grief, Vāsitthi came to Mithilā, and there she saw the Buddha. At the sight of the Buddha she regained her normal mind; and he taught her the outlines of the Dhamma, whereupon she soon attained Arahatship.4
We have read of the courtesan Amrapālī, who gave a vihāra to the Buddha. For further details of her life, see Therīgāthā, V, 252ff. (Psalms of the Sisters, pp. 120-1, 125).
Government and Administration of Justice
The Licchavis formed a republic in the sense that there was no hereditary monarch, the power of the State being vested in the assembly of citizens. It does not appear to have been a completely democratic republic, but an oligarchy, citizenship being confined to members of the confederate clans. There is ample evidence to show that in ancient times this form of government, as described in the Buddhist books, was much more in vogue than we are led to imagine from later literature.
The Licchavis formed what was called a samgha organa, that is, an organised corporation. One of the Buddhist canonical books, the Majjhima Nikāya, speaks of the Vajjis and the Mallas as forming samghas and ganas, i.e. clans governed by an organised corporation and not by an individual sovereign. The Mahāvastu says that when plague raged in Vaiśālī, a Licchavi named Tomara
1 Ekabanga Jataka, Fausböll, Jataba, Vol. I, pp. 504f. 2 Therīgāthā, V, 77ff.; Psalms of the Sisters, pp. 53-4. 3 Ibid., V, 21 and 22; Psalms of the Sisters, pp. 23-4. 4 Ibid., V, 133ff.; ibid., pp. 79-80. 5 P.T.S., Vol. I, p. 231. 21
