________________ Vaisali in Ancient Literature 177 7707 cannot be the right number of all the Licchavis living in the town of Vaisali. It seems to be an artificially concocted number. It would surely be too small a number for a great people that commanded respect for many centuries for their prowess and power and also it is too small a number for a people that filled almost the whole of such a large city of Vaisali. If stress is laid upon the fact that the viceroy, general, and treasurer were equal in number with rajas, it would mean that each of them had a personal staff of these officers. It seems likely that the existence of a treasurer attached to each raja necessarily implies that each raja had his separate treasury. There must have been officers among the Licchavis of Vaigali for recording the decisions of the Council. In the Maha-govinda Suttanta of the Dighanikaya, there is a passage which seems to justify this conclusion. The thirty-three gods assembled in the Hall of Good Counsel to discuss a certain matter. The four kings were receivers of the spoken words and the four great kings were receivers of the admonition given with respect to the matter under discussion. It seems likely that the four great kings were looked upon as recorder; they kept the minutes of the meeting. In the case of the mote-halls of the clans there must have been such recorders. 2 Any practical work would have been impossible if there had not been any officer to record the proceedings of such a vast assembly as that of the Licchavis of Vaisali. There was a tank the water of which was used at the coronation ceremony of the families of ganarajas of Vaisali.8 It may be inferred from this fact that the ceremony of coronation was performed when a young Licchavi prince succeeded to the title and position of his father. It is interesting to know the judicial procedure followed by the Vijj'an confederacy of which the Licchavis of Vaisali were the most important members. When a person was presented before the Vajjian rajas as having committed an offence, they without taking him to be a malefactor surrendered him to the officers (viniccaya-mahamattas) whose business it was to make enquiries and examine the accu ed with a view to ascertain whether he was guilty or not. If they found that he was not a culprit, they released him. But if they considered him guilty they made him over to the persons learned in law and custom (voharikas) 1. 2. 3. Dighanikaya, II. Dialogues of the Buddha, II. p. 263 f.n. 1. Jataka, Fausboll, IV, p. 148. 23
