In the English translation the
volumes correspond, and the pages of the original are indicated in square brackets.
volumes correspond, and the pages of the original are indicated in square brackets.
Cambridge History of India - v1
There is no reason to believe the
account given by the Digambaras, according to which he was murdered by
his own disciples. But, in any case, this time seems to have been one of
misfortune for the Jain church; and there can be no doubt is was then, i. e.
;
about 300 B. C. , that the great schism originated, which has ever since
divided the community in two great sects, the Cvetāmbaras and the
Digambaras. The returning monks, who had during the famine strictly
observed the rules in all their severity, were discontented with the conduct
of the brethren who had remained in Magadha, and stigmatised them as
heretics of wrong faith and lax discipline. Moreover, during this time of
dissolution, the old canon had fallen into oblivion ; and consequently the
monks who had remained in Magadha convoked a great council at
Pāțaliputra, the modern Patna, in order to collect and revise the scriptures.
However, this proved to be an undertaking of extraordinary difficulty,
since the pūrvas or older parts were known perfectly only to Bhadrabāhu,
who had at this time already settled in Nepāl; and Sthūlabhadra, who went
there in person, although he learnt from his predecessor all the fourteen
púrras, was forbidden to teach more than the first ten of them to others.
## p. 148 (#182) ############################################
148
[ch.
THE HISTORY OF THE JAINS
The canon established by the Council was therefore a fragmentary one;
and in it, to some extent, new scriptures, took the place of the old. In some
degree it may be represented by the present canon of the Cvetāmbaras,
since that too is preserved in a somewhat disorderly condition. The
returning monks, the spiritual ancestors of the Digambaras, seem to have
taken no part in the council, and to have proclaimed that the real canon
had been hopelessly lost ; and even to the present day they have continued
to hold the same opinion. They regard the whole canon of the
Çvetāmbaras, the Siddhānta as it is called, as merely a late and unauthori-
tative collection of works, brought together by Jina chandra in Valabhi at
a far later date.
But probably the difficulties which beset the Jain church at this period
were not only internal. As is well known, the Jains nowadays are settled
principally in Western India, Gujarāt, etc. That they have been there for a
very long time is certain, since their non-canonical writings, as well as
epigraphical documents, bear witness at an early date to their influence in
these parts of India. As the historical records of the sect have very little
to tell us of the reign of Chandragupta and his son Bindusāra, and perhaps
even still less of the great Açoka, it seems probable that they had already
in the third century B. c. begun to lose their foothold in Eastern India. The
manual of politics by Chāņakya describes a purely Brāhman society ; and
it may perhaps not be too hazardous to infer from this fact that the first
rise of the Maurya dynasty may have marked an attempt to restore the
Brāhman power and so check the rising influence of the heterodox
communities. If so, this policy was certainly abandoned by Açoka whose
zeal for Buddhism may have been one of the main causes for the downfall
of his great empire immediately after his death. It is true that Açoka in
one of his edicts mentions his protection of the nirgranthas as well as of
the Buddhists and other pious men ; but any attempt to prove a greater
interest on his part in the welfare of the Jains must fail, unsupported as it
is by the scriptures of the Jains themselves. It is true too that Khāravela,
king of Kalinga, who, although his exact date may be doubted, certainly,
lived a considerable time after Açoka, displayed a great zeal for the Jain
religion : but it seems quite clear that, at the time of Açoka's death, the
Jains had practically lost their connexion with Eastern India ; since they
apparently know nothing of his grandson Daçaratha, who succeeded him in
Magadha, and, of the following princes, only the usurper Pushyamitra, a
patron of Brāhmanism, is mentioned by them. On the other hand, they
tell us that Samprati, another grandson of Açoka who reigned probably in
Ujjain, was a strong supporter of their religion, and his capital seems to
have played at this time an important role in the history of Jainism.
As we have seen, in about 300 B. C the division of the Jain church
## p. 149 (#183) ############################################
VI]
WESTERN SETTLEMENTS
149
into the two great sects of the Çvetāmbaras and Digambaras had probably
already begun. The final separation between the two communities is, no
doubt, reported not to have taken place before 79 or 82 A. D. ; but the list
of teachers and schools in the Kalpasūtra and the numerous inscriptions
from Mathurā, which date mostly from the time of the later Kushāņa kings,
i. e. , after 78 A. D. , afford sufficient proof that the Çvetāmbara community
was not only established but had become subdivided into smaller sects at
an earlier period. This is especially clear from the frequent mention of
nuns in the Mathurā inscriptions for it is only the Cvetāmbaras who give
women admission into the order. Everything tends to show that the Jains
were probably already at this time (300 B. C. ) gradually losing their position
in the kingdom of Magadha, and that they had begun their migration
towards the Western part of India, where they settled, and where they have
retained their settlements to the present day. Attention has already been
called to the fact that the later Jain authors mention Ujjain as a place
where their religion had already gained a strong foothold in the age of
Açoka and his immediate successors. Another locality in which the Jains
seem to have been firmly established, from the middle of the second
century B. c. onwards, was Mathurā, in the old kingdom of the Çūrasenas,
known at an earlier date, e. g. by Megasthenes (300 B. c. ), as the centre of
Krishna-worship. The numerous inscriptions, excavated in this city by
General Cunningham and Dr. Führer, and deciphered by Professor Bühler,
tell us about a wide-spread and firmly established Jain community, strongly
supported by pious lay devotees, and very zealous in the consecration and
worship of images and shrines dedicated to Mahāvira and his predecessors.
An inscription, probably dated from 157 A. D. (=79 Çaka), mentions the
Vodva tope as 'built by the gods,' which, as Bühler rightly remarks, proves
that it in the second century A. D. must have been of considerable age as
everything concerning its origin had been already forgotten.
Except the long lists of teachers, often more or less apocryphal, which
have been preserved by the modern subdivisions of the Jain community,
there exist practically no historical records concerning the Jain church in
the centuries immediately preceding our era. Only one legend, the
Kāla kācharya-kathānaka, 'the story of the teacher Kālaka,' tells us about
some events which are supposed to have taken place in Ujjain and other
parts of Western India during the first part of the first century B. c. , or
immediately before the foundation of the Vikrama era in 58 B. c. This
legend is perhaps not totally devoid of all historical interest. For it records
how the Jain saint Kālaka, having been insulted by king Gardabhilla of
Ujjain, who, according to various traditions, was the father of the famous
Vikramāditya, went in his desire for revenge to the land of the Çakas,
whose king was styled 'King of Kings' (sāhānusāhi). This title, in its
.
## p. 150 (#184) ############################################
150
[CH
THE HISTORY OF THE JAINS
a
Greek and Indian forms, was certainly borne by the Çaka kings of the
Punjab, Maues and his successors, who belong to this period ; and, as it
actually appears in the form shaonano shao on the coins of their successors,
the Kushāņa monarchs, we are perhaps justified in concluding that the
legend is to some extent historical in character. However this may be, the
story goes on to tell us that Kālaka persuaded a number of Çaka satraps to
invade Ujjain and overthrow the dynasty of Gardabhilla ; but that, some
years afterwards, his son, the glorious Vikramāditya, repelled the invaders
and re-established the throne of his ancestors. What the historical
foundation of this legend may be, is wholly uncertain -perhaps it contains
faint recollections of the Scythian dominion in Western India during the
first century B. C. In any case, it seems undoubtedly to give further proof
of connexion of the Jains with Ujjain, a fact indicated also by their use
of the Vikrama era, which was established in the country of Mālwā, of
which Ujjain was the capital.
Thus, the history of the Jains during these centuries is enveloped in
almost total darkness; nor bave we any further information as to the
internal conditions of the community. Almost the only light thrown upon
these comes from the Mathurā inscriptions, which incidentally mention a
number of various branches, schools, and families of the Jain community.
From this source, too, we learn the names of teachers who under different
titles acted as spiritual leaders of these subdivisions, and of monks and
nuns who practised their austere life under their leadership. Much the
same religious conditions as are shown by the inscriptions have been pre-
served in the Jain church till the present day, although the names and
external forms of the sects and the monastic schools may have changed in
the course of twenty centuries. Moreover, the inscriptions mention the
names of a vast number of these pious lay people, both male and female,
who, in all ages, by providing the monks and nuns with their scanty liveli-
hood, have proved one of the firmest means of support for the Jain church
and whose zeal for their religion is attested by the numerous gifts of objects
for worship recorded in the inscriptions. Dr. Hoernle' is no doubt right in
maintaining that this good organisation of the Jain lay community must
have been a factor of the greatest importance to the church during the whole
of its existen ce, and may have been one of the main reasons why the Jain
religion continued to keep its position in India, whilst its far more im.
portant rival, Buddhism, was entirely swept away by the Brāhman reaction.
The inflexible conservatism of the small Jain community in holding fast to
its original in stitutions and doctrine has probably been the chief cause of
its survival during periods of severe affliction ; for, as Professor Jacobi has
pointed out long ago, there can be little doubt, that the most important
1 Proceed. of the A8. Soc. of Bengal, 1898, p. 53.
2 2. D. M. G. , XXXVIII, pp. 17 sq.
>
## p. 151 (#185) ############################################
VI ]
CONSERVATISM OF THE JAINS
151
doctrines of the Jain religion have remained practically unaltered since the
first great separation in the time of Bhadrabāhu about 300 B. C. And,
although a number of the less vital rules concerning the life and practices
of monks and laymen, which we find recorded in the holy scriptures, may
have fallen into oblivion or disuse, there is no reason to doubt that the
religious life of the Jain community is now substantially the same as it was
two thousand years ago.
It must be confessed from this that an absolute
refusal to admit changes has been the strongest safeguard of the Jains. To
what extent the well-known quotation ‘sint ut sunt aut non sint may be
applicable to the Jains of our days, may be questioned ; but the singularly
primitive idea that even lifeless matter is animated by a soul, and the
austerest perhaps of all known codes of disciplinary rules seem scarcely
congruent with modern innovations.
In the preceding pages an attempt has been made to give a brief
sketch of the history of the Jain church from its foundation or reformation
by Mahāvira about 500 B. c. down to the beginning of our era.
While we
possess materials which enable us to construct a fairly clear biography of
the prophet, and while we have at least some information concerning the
events which preceded and were contemporary with the beginning of the
great separation between Cvetāmbaras and Digambaras about 300 B. C. , the
following period is almost totally devoid of any historical record. And this
is not the only blank in Jain ecclesiastical history. Scarcely more is known
concerning the fate of the Jain church during the early centuries of our era
down to the time of the great council of Valabhi, in the fifth or at the
beginning of the sixth century A. D. , when the canon was written down in
its present form. The Jain church has never had a very great number of
adherents ; it has never attempted-at least not on any grand scale - to
preach its doctrines through missionaries outside India. Never rising to
an overpowering height but at the same time never sharing the fate of its
rival, Buddhism, that of complete extinction in its native land, it has led
a quiet existence through the centuries and has kept its place amongst the
religious system of India till the present day, thanks to its excellent
organisation and to its scrupulous care for the preservation of ancient
customs, institutions, and doctrine.
## p. 152 (#186) ############################################
CHAPTER VII
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
1. PRE-BUDDHISTIC
The early history of the Buddhists should properly begin far enough
back before the birth of the Buddha to throw light on the causes that were
at work in producing the rise and progress of the Buddhist reformer.
Unfortunately, even after all that has been written on the subject of early
Buddhist chronology, we are still uncertain as to the exact date of the
Buddha's birth. The date 483 B. C. which is adopted in this History must
still be regarded as provisional. The causes of this uncertainty which were
explained by the present writer in 1877 still remain the same :
If the date for Asoka is placed too early in the Ceylon chronicles, can
we still
trust the 218 years which they allege to have elapsed from the coinmencement of the
Buddhist era down to the time of Asoka ? If so we have only to add that number to
the correct date of Asoka, and thus fix the Buddhist era (the date of the Buddha's
death) at 483 B. C. or shortly after. Of the answer to this question, there can, I think,
be no doubt. We can not? .
This statement was followed by an analysis of the details of the lists
of kings and teachers, the length of whose reigns or lives, added together,
amount to this period of 218 years. The analysis shows how little the list
can be relied on. The fact is that all such calculations are of very
doubtful
validity when they have to be made backwards for any lengthened period.
Sinologists, Assyriologists, Egyptologists have not been able to agree on
results sought by this method ; and, though Archbishop Usher's attempt
to discover in this way, from the Hebrew records, the correct date of the
creation was long accepted, it is now mere matter for derision, As is well
known, even the Christian chronologists, though the interval they had to
cover was very short, were wrong in their calculation of our Christian era.
The Ceylon chroniclers may have been as much more wrong as the interval
they had to account for was longer. We must admit that they tried their
1 In the Buddhist chapters names and titles appear in their Pāli form.
2 Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon, p. 44 of the separate edition (London,
1877).
152
## p. 153 (#187) ############################################
VII ]
ANCIENT STATES
153
best, and were not so utterly at sea as the Irish church-dignitary. But we
do not even know who made the calculation. We first hear of it in the
fourth century A. D. , and are only entitled to conclude that at that date
the belief in the 218 years was accepted by most of those Buddhists who
continued in possession of the ancient traditions.
There have been endeavours, on the basis of other traditions, to arrive
at a more exact date for the birth of the Buddha”. It is sufficient to state
that each of these is open to still more serious objection. We must be
satisfied to accept, as a working hypothesis only, and not as an ascertained
fact, the general belief among modern European scholars that the period
for the Buddha's activity may be approximately assigned to the sixth
century B. C.
In previous chapters of this volume will be found the story, drawn
from the Brāhman literature, of the gradual establishment in Northern
India of the Āryan supremacy. For the period just before the rise of
Buddhism (say the seventh century B. c. ) this literature tells us very little
about political movements. The Buddhist books also are devoted to ideas
rather than to bistorical events, and pass over, as of no value to their main
objects, the dates and doings and dynastic vicissitudes of the kinglets before
their own time. The fact that they do so is historically important; and
we should do wrong in ignoring, in a history of India, the history of the ideas
held by the Indian peoples. But the fact remains. It is only quite inciden-
tally that we can gather, from stories, anecdotes, or legends in these books,
any information that can be called political. Of that referring to the pre-
Buddhist period the most important is perhaps the list of the Sixteen Great
Powers, or the Sixteen Great Nations, found in several places in the early
books. It is a mere mnemonic list and runs as follows :
1. Angā
9. Kuru
2. Magadhā
10. Pañchālā
3. Kāsi
11. Macchā
4. Kosalā
12. Sūrasenā
5. Vajji
13. Assakā
6. Mallā
14. Avanti
7. Cheti
15. Gandhārā
8. Vamsā
16. Kambojā
When a mnemonic phrase or verse of this kind is found in identical
terms in diffierent parts of the various anthologies of which the Buddhist
1 For the recent literature from the point of view of those who accept the 218
years as correct see Geiger, Mahāvamsa (English translation), pp. xxii-xxxvi.
2 See, for instance, the various results detailed by Winternitz, Geschichte der
indischen Litteratur, II, i, note 1
3 Anguttara I, 213; IV, 252, 256, 260. Referred to in Maharastu II, 2, line 15.
Cf. the note in Vinaya Texts, II, 146.
## p. 154 (#188) ############################################
154
[ch.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
>
canon consists, the most probable explanation is that it had been current
in the community before the books were put together as we now have them
and that it is therefore older than those collections in which it is foundi.
As this particular list is found in two of the oldest books in the canon it
would follow that it is, comparatively speaking, very old. It may even be
pre-Buddhist - a list handed down among the bards and adopted from
them by the early Buddhists. For it does not fitly describe the conditions
which, as we know quite well, prevailed during the Buddha's life-time.
Then the Kosa la mountaineers had already conquered Benares (Kāsi), the
Angas were absorbed into the kingdom of Magalhas, and the Assakas
probably belonged to Avanti. In our list all these three are still regarded
as independent and important nations; and that the list is more or less
correct for a period before the rise of Buddhism is confirmed by an ancient
rune preserved in the Digha’, and reproduced (in a very corrupt form, it is
rune) in one of the oldest Sanskrit-Buddhist texts. It runs :
Dantapura of the Kalingas, and Potana of the Assakas,
Māhissati for the Avantis, Roruka in the Sovira land,
Mithilā for the Videhas, and Champā among the Angas
And Benares for the Kāsis-all these did Mahā. Govinda plan.
We have here seven territories evidently, from the context, regarded
as the principal ones, before the rise of Buddhism, in the centre of what
was then known as Jambudipa (India). Though quite independent of the
list just discussed these mnemonic verses tell a similar story. Here also
appear the Assakas, Angas aud Käsis. Only the Kalingas are added ; and
the name of their capital, Dantapura, 'the Tooth city,' shows incidentally
that the sacred tooth, afterwards taken from Dantapura to Ceylon was
believed, when this list was drawn up, to have been already an object of
reverence before the time of the Buddha. This tradition of a pre-Buddhist
Dantapura, frequently referred to in the Jātakas, is thus shown to be really
of much greater age. And it is clear that at the time when the four Nikāyas
were put into their present form it was believed that, before the Buddha's
life-time, the distribution of power in Northern India, had been different
from what it afterwards became.
In an appendix to the Digha verse the names of the seven kings of the
seven nations are given, and it is curious that they are called the seven
Bhāratas. Their names are Sattabhu, Brahmadatta, Vessabhu, Bharata,
Reņu, and two Dhataratthas; but the record does not tell us which of the
seven nations each belongs to. In an interesting story at Jātaka III, 4705,
1 Cf. Rh. D. , Buddhist India, p. 188.
2 II, 235, translated in Dialogues of the Buddha, II, 270.
3 Mahūrastu III, 208, 209.
4 For the Nikāyas and their probable date, v. inf. , pp. 173. 4.
5 The references are to the Pāli text of the Jātaka.
In the English translation the
volumes correspond, and the pages of the original are indicated in square brackets.
## p. 155 (#189) ############################################
VII ]
THE CLANS
155
the hero is Bharata, king of the Soviras, reigning at Roruva, This is most
probably meant for the same man as the Bharata of the Digha passage ;
and we may therefore apportion him to the Soviras. The mention of Reņu
in a list of ancient kings of Benares given in the Dip. III, 38-40 probably
refers to the Reņu of our passage since the same rare name is given in both
places as the name of the father of Reņu. On the other hand the King
Reņu of Jātaka iv, 144 is evidently not meant to be the same as this one.
Three of the other four names also recur (not Sattabhu) ; but no inference
can be drawn that the same people are meant.
There are lists of pre-Buddhist Rājas (whatever that term may signify)
in the chronicles and commentaries. But they can only be evidence of
beliefs held at a late date ; they have not yet been tabulated or sifted ; and
it would not be safe to hazard a prophecy that, even when they shall have
been, there will be found anything of much value.
2. INDIA IN THE BODDHA'S TIME ; TAE CLANS
.
There is no chapter or even paragraph in the early Páli books describ-
ing the political conditions of North India during the life time of the Buddha.
But there are a considerable number of incidental references, all the more
valuable perhaps because they are purely incidental, that, if collected and
arranged, give us a picture, no doubt imperfect, but still fairly correct as far
as it goes, of the general conditions, as they appeared to the composers of
the paragraphs in which the incidental references occur. They were
collected in the present writer's Buddhist India ; and to that work the
reader is referred for a fuller account. Considerations of space render it
possible to state here only the more important of the conclusions which
these references com pel us to draw.
Of these the most far-reaching, and in some respects the most sur-
prising, is the fact that we find not only one or two powerful monarchies,
and several kingdoms of lesser importance- like the German duchies or the
kingdoms in England at the time of the Heptarchy--but also a number of
republics ; some with complete, some with
or less modified
independence ; and one or two of very considerable power. This reminds
us of the political situation at about the same period in Greece. We shall
find a similar analogy, due to similar causes, in other matters also. If
not pressed too far the analogy will be as useful as it is certainly interesting.
The following is a list of the republics actually referred to by name
in the oldest Pāli records. Some mentioned by Megasthenese are added
to it.
1. The Sākiyas, capital Kapilavatthu
2. The Bulis, capital Allakappa
3. The Kālāmas, capital Kesaputta
a
more
## p. 156 (#190) ############################################
156
[CH.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
4. The Bhaggas, capital on Sumsumāra Hill
5. The Koliyas, capital Rāmagāma
6. The Mallas, capital Pāvā
7. The Mallas, capital Kusinārā
8. The Moriyas, capital Pipphalivana
9. The Videhas, capital Mithilā
10. The Licchavis, capital Vesāli
11-15, Tribes, as yet unidentified, mentioned
by Megasthenes
Nos. 1. 10 occupied in the sixth century B. C. the whole country east of
Kosala between the mountains and the Ganges. Those mentioned, as is
reported in other authors, by Megasthenes seem to have dwelt in his time
on the sea-coast of the extreme west of India north of the gulf of Cutch'.
It is naturally in relation to the Sākiyas that we have the greatest amount
of detail. Their territory included the lower slopes of the Himālayas, and
the glorious view of the long range of snowy peaks is visible, weather
permitting, from every part of the land. We do not know its boundaries
or how far it extended up into the hills or down into the plains. But the
territory must have been considerable. We hear of a number of towns
besides the capital - Chātumā, Sāmagāra, Khomadussa, Silāvati, Meda-
lumpa, Nagaraka, Ulumpa, Devadaha, and Sakkara. And according to an
.
ancient tradition preserved in the Commentary on the Digha? there were
80,000 families in the clan. This number (it is noteworthy that the auspi-
cious number 84,000 was not chosen) would, allowing for children and
dependents, mean a population of at least half a million. It would be
absurd to take this tradition as a correct, or even as an official enumeration.
We do not even know who first made the calculation. But it would be
equally absurd deliberately to ignore it. It is at least interesting to find
that even as late as Buddhaghosa the traditional estimate of the number of
the Sākiyans was still, in spite of the temptation to magnify the extent of
the 'kingdom' which the Buddha renounced, so limited and so reasonable
as this.
The administrative business of the clan, and also the more important
judicial acts, were carried out in public assembly, at which young and old
were alike. The meetings were held in a mote-hall- a
roof
supported by pillars, without walls. It is called Santhāgāra, a technical
term never used of the council chamber of kings. "
We have no account of the manner in which the proceedings were
conducted in the Sākiya mote-hall. But in the Maha-Govinda Suttanta
there is an account of a palaver in Sakka's heaven, evidently modelled
1 M'Crindle, Ancient India as described by Megasthenese, p. 144, cf. p. 156.
See Rh. D. , Dialogues of the Buddha, I, 147.
D. I, 91.
4 See the passages quoted at J. P. T. S. , 1909, 65.
mere
## p. 157 (#191) ############################################
VII ]
LOCAL ADMINISTRATION
157
>
more or less on the proceedings in a clan meeting. All are seated in a
specified order. After the president has laid the proposed business before
the assembly others speak upon it, and Recorders take charge of the
unanimous decision arrived at? . The actions of gods are drawn in imita-
tion of those of men. We may be sure that the composers and repeaters
of this story, themselves for the most part belonging to the free clans (and,
if not, to neighbouring clans familiar with tribal meetings) would make use
of their knowledge of what was consequently done at the mote-hall
assemblies. This is confirmed by the proceedings adopted in the rules
observed at formal meetings of the Chapters of the Buddhist Order. Quite
a number of cases are given in the Canon Law; and in no single case,
:
apparently, is there question of deciding the point at issue by voting on a
motion moved. Either the decision is regarded as unanimous ; or, if
difference of opinion is manifest, then the matter is referred for arbitration
to a committee of referees'. It is even quite possible that certain of the
technical terms found in the Rules of the Orders (ñatti for ‘motion,'
ubbāhikā for 'reference to arbitration, etc. ), are taken from those in use at
the mote-halls of the free clans. But however that may be, we are justified
by this evidence in concluding that the method of procedure generally
adopted in the mote-halls was not, as in modern parliaments, by voting on
a motion, but rather as just above explained.
A single chief (how or for what period chosen we do not know) was
elected as office holder, presiding over the Senate, and, if no senate were in
session, over the state. He bore the title of Raja which in this connexion
does not mean king, but rather something like Roman consul, or the
Greek archon. We hear at one time that Bhaddiya, a young cousin
of the Buddha, was ‘rāja’4, at another that the Buddha's father Suddhudana
(elsewhere spoken of as a simple clansman, Suddhodana the Sākiyan), held
that ranks.
We hear of mote-halls at some of the other towns besides the capital,
Kapilavatthu. And no doubt all the more important places had them.
The local affairs of each village were carried on in open assembly of the
householders held in the groves which, then as now, formed so distinctive
a feature in the long and level alluvial plain.
The clan subsisted on the produce of their rice fields and their cattle.
The villages were of grouped, not scattered, huts on the margin of the rice
field. The cattle wandered in harvest time, under the charge of a village
herdsman, through the adjoining forest (of which the village groves were a
remnant), and over which the Sākiyan peasantry had common rights.
5
>
1 Translated' in Dialogues, vol. II, pp. 259-264.
2 Translated in Rhys Davids' and Oldenberg's Vinaya Texts. See especially vol.
pp.
44 ff.
3 Vinaya Texts, III, pp. 49 ff.
4 Vinaya II, 181.
5 Digha II 52
III,
## p. 158 (#192) ############################################
158
[ CH
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
>
Men of certain special crafts, most probably not Sākiyans by birth-
carpenters, smiths, and potters for instance - had villages of their own ;
and so also had the Brāhmans whose services were often in request for
all kinds of magic. The villages were separated one from another by
forest jungle, the remains of the Great Wood (the Mahāvana), portions
of which are so frequently mentioned as still surviving throughout the
clanships. The jungle was infested from time to time by robbers, sometimes
runaway slaves. But we hear of no crime (and there was probably not
very much) in the villages themselves - each of them a tiny self-governed
republic.
Tradition tells that the neighbouring clan, the Koliyas, were closely
related by descent with the Sākiyası ; but we are not told much about the
former. Five of their townships besides the capital are referred to by
name: -- Halidda-vasana”, Sajjanela3, Sāpūga“, Uttara”, and Kakkara-pattae.
Every Koliyan was a Vyaggha pajja by surname, just as every Sākiyan was
a Gotama ; and in tradition the name of their capital Rāmagāma, so
called after the Rāma who founded it, is once given as either Kolanagara
or Vyagghapajja? The central authorities of the clan were served by a
body of peons or police, distinguished, as by a kind of uniform, by
a special form of head-dress. These men had a bad reputation for
extortion and violence. In the other clans we are told only of ordinary
servants. The tradition that the Koliyans and Sākiyans built a dam over
the river Rohini which separated their territories, and that they afterwards
quarrelled over the distribution of the store of water, may very well be
founded on fact.
Of the form of government in the Vajjian confederacy, comprising the
Licchavis, the Videhas, and other clans, we have two traditions, Jain
and Buddhist10. They are not very clear and do not refer to the same
matters, the Jain being on military affairs, while the Buddhist refers
to judicial procedure.
THE KINGDOMS. I. KOSALA
Kosala was the most important of the kingdoms in North India
during the life of the Buddhi. Its exact boundaries are not known.
But it must have bordered on the Ganges in its sweep downwards in
a south-easterly direction from the Himālayas to the plains at the modern
Allahābād. Its northern frontier must have been in the hills, in what is
now Nepāl ; its southern boundary was the Ganges; and its eastern
boundary was the eastern limit of the Sākiya territory. For the Sākiyas,
as one of our oldest documents leads us to infer, claimed to be Kosalansll.
1 Sumangala I, 258 ff.
2 M. I, 387; S. V, 115. 3 A. II, 62,
4 A, II, 194.
5 S. IV, 340.
6 A. IV, 281.
7 Sum. I, 262.
8 S. IV, 341.
9 Jat. V, 412-416.
10 Jacobi, Jaina Sutras, I, XII 11 Sutta Nipata, verse 422.
>
## p. 159 (#193) ############################################
VII ]
KOSALA
159
a
The total extent of Kosala was therefore but little less than that of France
to-day. At the same time it is not probable that the administration
was very much centralised. The instance of the very thorough Home Rule
enjoyed, as we have seen, by the Sākiyas should make us alive to the
greater probability that autonomous local bodies, with larger power than
the village communities, which were of course left undisturbed, were still
in existence throughout this wide territory.
One or two of the technical terms in use to describe such powers have
survived. Rāja-bhogga for example is the expression for a form of tenure
peculiar in India. The holder of such a tenure, the rāja-bhoggo, was
empowered to exact all dues accruing to the government within the bound-
aries of the district or estate granted to him. But he had not to render
to government any acco unt of the dues thus received by him. They were
his perquisite. He could hold his own courts, and occupied in many ways
the position of a baron, or lord of the manor. But there was a striking
difference. He could draw no rent. The peasantry had to pay him the tithe,
of the rice grown; and though the amount was not always strictly a tithe,
and by royal decree could be varied in different localities, the grantee could
not vary it. So with the import, or ferry, or octroi duties. The rate of
payment, and the places at which the levy could be made, were fixed by
the government. We have not enough cases of this tenure to be able to
interpret with certainty the meaning of all the details, and limits of space
prevent a discussion of them here. But the general principle is quite clear? .
It shows how easy would be the grant to local notabilities of local govern-
ment to this extent, and how narrow was the line of distinction between
the collection of dues by civil servants or farmers of the taxes and their
collection by a grantee in this way. This custom, thus traced back to so
early a period in the history of India, seems never to have fallen into abey-
ance, It certainly, in the period under discussion, was of manifest advan-
tage. But it must be admitted that it is, to English ideas, very strange -
so strange that our civilians made the mistake, in Bengal, of regarding all
such persons legally empowered to collect the land-tax as landlords, and of
endowing them accordingly with the much greater privileges and powers
of the English landlord. In the Buddhist period there is no evidence of
the existence, in North India, of landlords in our sense of that term.
It was the rise of this great power, Kosala, in the very centre of
Northern India, which was the paramount factor in the politics of the time
before the Buddhist reform. We do not know the details of this rise. But
there are purely incidental references imbedded in the ethical teachings in the
Buddhist books which afford us at least hints as to the final manner of it,
and as to the date of it. For instance we have the story of Dighāvu in the
1 D. I, 114, 127, 130 : cf. II, 50 and Divy. , 620, Vin. III, 221, with the Old Com.
mentary at 222, M. III, 133, Jāt. VI, 344, Sum. Vil. I, 245, 246.
## p. 160 (#194) ############################################
160
[ch.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
Vinaya? . There Brahinadatta, king of Käsi, invades Kosala, when Dighiti
was king at Săvatthi, and conquered and annexed the whole country ; but
finally restored it to Dighiti's son, with whom he had become on very
friendly terms. Other traditions inform us on the other hand of several
invasions of the Kāsi country by the then kings of Kosala, Vanka,
Dabbasena, and Kamsa? . And when that most excellent story, the Rājovada
Jātaka3- as good in humour as it is in ethics-was first put together to
represent two kings in conflict, the quite natural idea was to fix upon kings
of Kosala and Kāsi, and the author does so accordingly.
No references have so far been found in the books as to any contests
between Kosala and any other tribe or nationality. It would seem therefore
that the gradual absorption into Kosala of the clans and tribes in the
northern part of Kosala as we know it in the Buddha's time took place
without any such battle, campaign, or siege as was sufficiently striking to
impress the popular imagination ; but that when Kosala came into contact
with Kāsi there ensued a struggle, with varying result and lasting through
several reigns, which ended in the complete subjugation of the Kāsi country
by Kamsa, king of Kosala.
As to the approximate period of these events, we see that they
were supposed to have taken place not only before the time of Pasenadi,
who was born about the same time as the Buddha and lived about as long,
but also before the time of his father the Great Kosalan. We have four
kings of Kosala mentioned as taking part in these wars, and cannot be sure
that there were not others who had quieter reigns. It would be enough and
more than enough to allow, in round numbers, a century for all these
kings. And the period cannot be much longer than that. For the name
Brahmadatta could not have been older than towards the close of the
Brāhmaṇa literature ; and a century and a half before the birth of the
Buddha would about bring us to that.
The king of Kosala in the Buddha's time was Pasenadi. He was of
the same age as the Teacher; and though never actually converted, was
very favourable to the new movement, adopted its more elementary teach-
ings, and was fond of calling upon the Buddha either to consult him or
simply for conversation. A whole book of the Samyutta is devoted to such
talks, and others are recorded elsewhere. They are mostly on religion or
ethics, but some political and personal matters are occasionally mentioned
incidentally.
For instance five ‘rājas' are introduced discussing a point in
psychology with Pasenadi. Whatever the title may exactly imply it is
probable that we have the leaders of five clans or communities that,
1 l'inaya Texts, II, 293-305.
? Jät. I, 262 ;II, 403 ; III, 13, 168, 211; v, 1 12.
3 Jätaka II, 1.
4 M.
account given by the Digambaras, according to which he was murdered by
his own disciples. But, in any case, this time seems to have been one of
misfortune for the Jain church; and there can be no doubt is was then, i. e.
;
about 300 B. C. , that the great schism originated, which has ever since
divided the community in two great sects, the Cvetāmbaras and the
Digambaras. The returning monks, who had during the famine strictly
observed the rules in all their severity, were discontented with the conduct
of the brethren who had remained in Magadha, and stigmatised them as
heretics of wrong faith and lax discipline. Moreover, during this time of
dissolution, the old canon had fallen into oblivion ; and consequently the
monks who had remained in Magadha convoked a great council at
Pāțaliputra, the modern Patna, in order to collect and revise the scriptures.
However, this proved to be an undertaking of extraordinary difficulty,
since the pūrvas or older parts were known perfectly only to Bhadrabāhu,
who had at this time already settled in Nepāl; and Sthūlabhadra, who went
there in person, although he learnt from his predecessor all the fourteen
púrras, was forbidden to teach more than the first ten of them to others.
## p. 148 (#182) ############################################
148
[ch.
THE HISTORY OF THE JAINS
The canon established by the Council was therefore a fragmentary one;
and in it, to some extent, new scriptures, took the place of the old. In some
degree it may be represented by the present canon of the Cvetāmbaras,
since that too is preserved in a somewhat disorderly condition. The
returning monks, the spiritual ancestors of the Digambaras, seem to have
taken no part in the council, and to have proclaimed that the real canon
had been hopelessly lost ; and even to the present day they have continued
to hold the same opinion. They regard the whole canon of the
Çvetāmbaras, the Siddhānta as it is called, as merely a late and unauthori-
tative collection of works, brought together by Jina chandra in Valabhi at
a far later date.
But probably the difficulties which beset the Jain church at this period
were not only internal. As is well known, the Jains nowadays are settled
principally in Western India, Gujarāt, etc. That they have been there for a
very long time is certain, since their non-canonical writings, as well as
epigraphical documents, bear witness at an early date to their influence in
these parts of India. As the historical records of the sect have very little
to tell us of the reign of Chandragupta and his son Bindusāra, and perhaps
even still less of the great Açoka, it seems probable that they had already
in the third century B. c. begun to lose their foothold in Eastern India. The
manual of politics by Chāņakya describes a purely Brāhman society ; and
it may perhaps not be too hazardous to infer from this fact that the first
rise of the Maurya dynasty may have marked an attempt to restore the
Brāhman power and so check the rising influence of the heterodox
communities. If so, this policy was certainly abandoned by Açoka whose
zeal for Buddhism may have been one of the main causes for the downfall
of his great empire immediately after his death. It is true that Açoka in
one of his edicts mentions his protection of the nirgranthas as well as of
the Buddhists and other pious men ; but any attempt to prove a greater
interest on his part in the welfare of the Jains must fail, unsupported as it
is by the scriptures of the Jains themselves. It is true too that Khāravela,
king of Kalinga, who, although his exact date may be doubted, certainly,
lived a considerable time after Açoka, displayed a great zeal for the Jain
religion : but it seems quite clear that, at the time of Açoka's death, the
Jains had practically lost their connexion with Eastern India ; since they
apparently know nothing of his grandson Daçaratha, who succeeded him in
Magadha, and, of the following princes, only the usurper Pushyamitra, a
patron of Brāhmanism, is mentioned by them. On the other hand, they
tell us that Samprati, another grandson of Açoka who reigned probably in
Ujjain, was a strong supporter of their religion, and his capital seems to
have played at this time an important role in the history of Jainism.
As we have seen, in about 300 B. C the division of the Jain church
## p. 149 (#183) ############################################
VI]
WESTERN SETTLEMENTS
149
into the two great sects of the Çvetāmbaras and Digambaras had probably
already begun. The final separation between the two communities is, no
doubt, reported not to have taken place before 79 or 82 A. D. ; but the list
of teachers and schools in the Kalpasūtra and the numerous inscriptions
from Mathurā, which date mostly from the time of the later Kushāņa kings,
i. e. , after 78 A. D. , afford sufficient proof that the Çvetāmbara community
was not only established but had become subdivided into smaller sects at
an earlier period. This is especially clear from the frequent mention of
nuns in the Mathurā inscriptions for it is only the Cvetāmbaras who give
women admission into the order. Everything tends to show that the Jains
were probably already at this time (300 B. C. ) gradually losing their position
in the kingdom of Magadha, and that they had begun their migration
towards the Western part of India, where they settled, and where they have
retained their settlements to the present day. Attention has already been
called to the fact that the later Jain authors mention Ujjain as a place
where their religion had already gained a strong foothold in the age of
Açoka and his immediate successors. Another locality in which the Jains
seem to have been firmly established, from the middle of the second
century B. c. onwards, was Mathurā, in the old kingdom of the Çūrasenas,
known at an earlier date, e. g. by Megasthenes (300 B. c. ), as the centre of
Krishna-worship. The numerous inscriptions, excavated in this city by
General Cunningham and Dr. Führer, and deciphered by Professor Bühler,
tell us about a wide-spread and firmly established Jain community, strongly
supported by pious lay devotees, and very zealous in the consecration and
worship of images and shrines dedicated to Mahāvira and his predecessors.
An inscription, probably dated from 157 A. D. (=79 Çaka), mentions the
Vodva tope as 'built by the gods,' which, as Bühler rightly remarks, proves
that it in the second century A. D. must have been of considerable age as
everything concerning its origin had been already forgotten.
Except the long lists of teachers, often more or less apocryphal, which
have been preserved by the modern subdivisions of the Jain community,
there exist practically no historical records concerning the Jain church in
the centuries immediately preceding our era. Only one legend, the
Kāla kācharya-kathānaka, 'the story of the teacher Kālaka,' tells us about
some events which are supposed to have taken place in Ujjain and other
parts of Western India during the first part of the first century B. c. , or
immediately before the foundation of the Vikrama era in 58 B. c. This
legend is perhaps not totally devoid of all historical interest. For it records
how the Jain saint Kālaka, having been insulted by king Gardabhilla of
Ujjain, who, according to various traditions, was the father of the famous
Vikramāditya, went in his desire for revenge to the land of the Çakas,
whose king was styled 'King of Kings' (sāhānusāhi). This title, in its
.
## p. 150 (#184) ############################################
150
[CH
THE HISTORY OF THE JAINS
a
Greek and Indian forms, was certainly borne by the Çaka kings of the
Punjab, Maues and his successors, who belong to this period ; and, as it
actually appears in the form shaonano shao on the coins of their successors,
the Kushāņa monarchs, we are perhaps justified in concluding that the
legend is to some extent historical in character. However this may be, the
story goes on to tell us that Kālaka persuaded a number of Çaka satraps to
invade Ujjain and overthrow the dynasty of Gardabhilla ; but that, some
years afterwards, his son, the glorious Vikramāditya, repelled the invaders
and re-established the throne of his ancestors. What the historical
foundation of this legend may be, is wholly uncertain -perhaps it contains
faint recollections of the Scythian dominion in Western India during the
first century B. C. In any case, it seems undoubtedly to give further proof
of connexion of the Jains with Ujjain, a fact indicated also by their use
of the Vikrama era, which was established in the country of Mālwā, of
which Ujjain was the capital.
Thus, the history of the Jains during these centuries is enveloped in
almost total darkness; nor bave we any further information as to the
internal conditions of the community. Almost the only light thrown upon
these comes from the Mathurā inscriptions, which incidentally mention a
number of various branches, schools, and families of the Jain community.
From this source, too, we learn the names of teachers who under different
titles acted as spiritual leaders of these subdivisions, and of monks and
nuns who practised their austere life under their leadership. Much the
same religious conditions as are shown by the inscriptions have been pre-
served in the Jain church till the present day, although the names and
external forms of the sects and the monastic schools may have changed in
the course of twenty centuries. Moreover, the inscriptions mention the
names of a vast number of these pious lay people, both male and female,
who, in all ages, by providing the monks and nuns with their scanty liveli-
hood, have proved one of the firmest means of support for the Jain church
and whose zeal for their religion is attested by the numerous gifts of objects
for worship recorded in the inscriptions. Dr. Hoernle' is no doubt right in
maintaining that this good organisation of the Jain lay community must
have been a factor of the greatest importance to the church during the whole
of its existen ce, and may have been one of the main reasons why the Jain
religion continued to keep its position in India, whilst its far more im.
portant rival, Buddhism, was entirely swept away by the Brāhman reaction.
The inflexible conservatism of the small Jain community in holding fast to
its original in stitutions and doctrine has probably been the chief cause of
its survival during periods of severe affliction ; for, as Professor Jacobi has
pointed out long ago, there can be little doubt, that the most important
1 Proceed. of the A8. Soc. of Bengal, 1898, p. 53.
2 2. D. M. G. , XXXVIII, pp. 17 sq.
>
## p. 151 (#185) ############################################
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CONSERVATISM OF THE JAINS
151
doctrines of the Jain religion have remained practically unaltered since the
first great separation in the time of Bhadrabāhu about 300 B. C. And,
although a number of the less vital rules concerning the life and practices
of monks and laymen, which we find recorded in the holy scriptures, may
have fallen into oblivion or disuse, there is no reason to doubt that the
religious life of the Jain community is now substantially the same as it was
two thousand years ago.
It must be confessed from this that an absolute
refusal to admit changes has been the strongest safeguard of the Jains. To
what extent the well-known quotation ‘sint ut sunt aut non sint may be
applicable to the Jains of our days, may be questioned ; but the singularly
primitive idea that even lifeless matter is animated by a soul, and the
austerest perhaps of all known codes of disciplinary rules seem scarcely
congruent with modern innovations.
In the preceding pages an attempt has been made to give a brief
sketch of the history of the Jain church from its foundation or reformation
by Mahāvira about 500 B. c. down to the beginning of our era.
While we
possess materials which enable us to construct a fairly clear biography of
the prophet, and while we have at least some information concerning the
events which preceded and were contemporary with the beginning of the
great separation between Cvetāmbaras and Digambaras about 300 B. C. , the
following period is almost totally devoid of any historical record. And this
is not the only blank in Jain ecclesiastical history. Scarcely more is known
concerning the fate of the Jain church during the early centuries of our era
down to the time of the great council of Valabhi, in the fifth or at the
beginning of the sixth century A. D. , when the canon was written down in
its present form. The Jain church has never had a very great number of
adherents ; it has never attempted-at least not on any grand scale - to
preach its doctrines through missionaries outside India. Never rising to
an overpowering height but at the same time never sharing the fate of its
rival, Buddhism, that of complete extinction in its native land, it has led
a quiet existence through the centuries and has kept its place amongst the
religious system of India till the present day, thanks to its excellent
organisation and to its scrupulous care for the preservation of ancient
customs, institutions, and doctrine.
## p. 152 (#186) ############################################
CHAPTER VII
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
1. PRE-BUDDHISTIC
The early history of the Buddhists should properly begin far enough
back before the birth of the Buddha to throw light on the causes that were
at work in producing the rise and progress of the Buddhist reformer.
Unfortunately, even after all that has been written on the subject of early
Buddhist chronology, we are still uncertain as to the exact date of the
Buddha's birth. The date 483 B. C. which is adopted in this History must
still be regarded as provisional. The causes of this uncertainty which were
explained by the present writer in 1877 still remain the same :
If the date for Asoka is placed too early in the Ceylon chronicles, can
we still
trust the 218 years which they allege to have elapsed from the coinmencement of the
Buddhist era down to the time of Asoka ? If so we have only to add that number to
the correct date of Asoka, and thus fix the Buddhist era (the date of the Buddha's
death) at 483 B. C. or shortly after. Of the answer to this question, there can, I think,
be no doubt. We can not? .
This statement was followed by an analysis of the details of the lists
of kings and teachers, the length of whose reigns or lives, added together,
amount to this period of 218 years. The analysis shows how little the list
can be relied on. The fact is that all such calculations are of very
doubtful
validity when they have to be made backwards for any lengthened period.
Sinologists, Assyriologists, Egyptologists have not been able to agree on
results sought by this method ; and, though Archbishop Usher's attempt
to discover in this way, from the Hebrew records, the correct date of the
creation was long accepted, it is now mere matter for derision, As is well
known, even the Christian chronologists, though the interval they had to
cover was very short, were wrong in their calculation of our Christian era.
The Ceylon chroniclers may have been as much more wrong as the interval
they had to account for was longer. We must admit that they tried their
1 In the Buddhist chapters names and titles appear in their Pāli form.
2 Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon, p. 44 of the separate edition (London,
1877).
152
## p. 153 (#187) ############################################
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ANCIENT STATES
153
best, and were not so utterly at sea as the Irish church-dignitary. But we
do not even know who made the calculation. We first hear of it in the
fourth century A. D. , and are only entitled to conclude that at that date
the belief in the 218 years was accepted by most of those Buddhists who
continued in possession of the ancient traditions.
There have been endeavours, on the basis of other traditions, to arrive
at a more exact date for the birth of the Buddha”. It is sufficient to state
that each of these is open to still more serious objection. We must be
satisfied to accept, as a working hypothesis only, and not as an ascertained
fact, the general belief among modern European scholars that the period
for the Buddha's activity may be approximately assigned to the sixth
century B. C.
In previous chapters of this volume will be found the story, drawn
from the Brāhman literature, of the gradual establishment in Northern
India of the Āryan supremacy. For the period just before the rise of
Buddhism (say the seventh century B. c. ) this literature tells us very little
about political movements. The Buddhist books also are devoted to ideas
rather than to bistorical events, and pass over, as of no value to their main
objects, the dates and doings and dynastic vicissitudes of the kinglets before
their own time. The fact that they do so is historically important; and
we should do wrong in ignoring, in a history of India, the history of the ideas
held by the Indian peoples. But the fact remains. It is only quite inciden-
tally that we can gather, from stories, anecdotes, or legends in these books,
any information that can be called political. Of that referring to the pre-
Buddhist period the most important is perhaps the list of the Sixteen Great
Powers, or the Sixteen Great Nations, found in several places in the early
books. It is a mere mnemonic list and runs as follows :
1. Angā
9. Kuru
2. Magadhā
10. Pañchālā
3. Kāsi
11. Macchā
4. Kosalā
12. Sūrasenā
5. Vajji
13. Assakā
6. Mallā
14. Avanti
7. Cheti
15. Gandhārā
8. Vamsā
16. Kambojā
When a mnemonic phrase or verse of this kind is found in identical
terms in diffierent parts of the various anthologies of which the Buddhist
1 For the recent literature from the point of view of those who accept the 218
years as correct see Geiger, Mahāvamsa (English translation), pp. xxii-xxxvi.
2 See, for instance, the various results detailed by Winternitz, Geschichte der
indischen Litteratur, II, i, note 1
3 Anguttara I, 213; IV, 252, 256, 260. Referred to in Maharastu II, 2, line 15.
Cf. the note in Vinaya Texts, II, 146.
## p. 154 (#188) ############################################
154
[ch.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
>
canon consists, the most probable explanation is that it had been current
in the community before the books were put together as we now have them
and that it is therefore older than those collections in which it is foundi.
As this particular list is found in two of the oldest books in the canon it
would follow that it is, comparatively speaking, very old. It may even be
pre-Buddhist - a list handed down among the bards and adopted from
them by the early Buddhists. For it does not fitly describe the conditions
which, as we know quite well, prevailed during the Buddha's life-time.
Then the Kosa la mountaineers had already conquered Benares (Kāsi), the
Angas were absorbed into the kingdom of Magalhas, and the Assakas
probably belonged to Avanti. In our list all these three are still regarded
as independent and important nations; and that the list is more or less
correct for a period before the rise of Buddhism is confirmed by an ancient
rune preserved in the Digha’, and reproduced (in a very corrupt form, it is
rune) in one of the oldest Sanskrit-Buddhist texts. It runs :
Dantapura of the Kalingas, and Potana of the Assakas,
Māhissati for the Avantis, Roruka in the Sovira land,
Mithilā for the Videhas, and Champā among the Angas
And Benares for the Kāsis-all these did Mahā. Govinda plan.
We have here seven territories evidently, from the context, regarded
as the principal ones, before the rise of Buddhism, in the centre of what
was then known as Jambudipa (India). Though quite independent of the
list just discussed these mnemonic verses tell a similar story. Here also
appear the Assakas, Angas aud Käsis. Only the Kalingas are added ; and
the name of their capital, Dantapura, 'the Tooth city,' shows incidentally
that the sacred tooth, afterwards taken from Dantapura to Ceylon was
believed, when this list was drawn up, to have been already an object of
reverence before the time of the Buddha. This tradition of a pre-Buddhist
Dantapura, frequently referred to in the Jātakas, is thus shown to be really
of much greater age. And it is clear that at the time when the four Nikāyas
were put into their present form it was believed that, before the Buddha's
life-time, the distribution of power in Northern India, had been different
from what it afterwards became.
In an appendix to the Digha verse the names of the seven kings of the
seven nations are given, and it is curious that they are called the seven
Bhāratas. Their names are Sattabhu, Brahmadatta, Vessabhu, Bharata,
Reņu, and two Dhataratthas; but the record does not tell us which of the
seven nations each belongs to. In an interesting story at Jātaka III, 4705,
1 Cf. Rh. D. , Buddhist India, p. 188.
2 II, 235, translated in Dialogues of the Buddha, II, 270.
3 Mahūrastu III, 208, 209.
4 For the Nikāyas and their probable date, v. inf. , pp. 173. 4.
5 The references are to the Pāli text of the Jātaka.
In the English translation the
volumes correspond, and the pages of the original are indicated in square brackets.
## p. 155 (#189) ############################################
VII ]
THE CLANS
155
the hero is Bharata, king of the Soviras, reigning at Roruva, This is most
probably meant for the same man as the Bharata of the Digha passage ;
and we may therefore apportion him to the Soviras. The mention of Reņu
in a list of ancient kings of Benares given in the Dip. III, 38-40 probably
refers to the Reņu of our passage since the same rare name is given in both
places as the name of the father of Reņu. On the other hand the King
Reņu of Jātaka iv, 144 is evidently not meant to be the same as this one.
Three of the other four names also recur (not Sattabhu) ; but no inference
can be drawn that the same people are meant.
There are lists of pre-Buddhist Rājas (whatever that term may signify)
in the chronicles and commentaries. But they can only be evidence of
beliefs held at a late date ; they have not yet been tabulated or sifted ; and
it would not be safe to hazard a prophecy that, even when they shall have
been, there will be found anything of much value.
2. INDIA IN THE BODDHA'S TIME ; TAE CLANS
.
There is no chapter or even paragraph in the early Páli books describ-
ing the political conditions of North India during the life time of the Buddha.
But there are a considerable number of incidental references, all the more
valuable perhaps because they are purely incidental, that, if collected and
arranged, give us a picture, no doubt imperfect, but still fairly correct as far
as it goes, of the general conditions, as they appeared to the composers of
the paragraphs in which the incidental references occur. They were
collected in the present writer's Buddhist India ; and to that work the
reader is referred for a fuller account. Considerations of space render it
possible to state here only the more important of the conclusions which
these references com pel us to draw.
Of these the most far-reaching, and in some respects the most sur-
prising, is the fact that we find not only one or two powerful monarchies,
and several kingdoms of lesser importance- like the German duchies or the
kingdoms in England at the time of the Heptarchy--but also a number of
republics ; some with complete, some with
or less modified
independence ; and one or two of very considerable power. This reminds
us of the political situation at about the same period in Greece. We shall
find a similar analogy, due to similar causes, in other matters also. If
not pressed too far the analogy will be as useful as it is certainly interesting.
The following is a list of the republics actually referred to by name
in the oldest Pāli records. Some mentioned by Megasthenese are added
to it.
1. The Sākiyas, capital Kapilavatthu
2. The Bulis, capital Allakappa
3. The Kālāmas, capital Kesaputta
a
more
## p. 156 (#190) ############################################
156
[CH.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
4. The Bhaggas, capital on Sumsumāra Hill
5. The Koliyas, capital Rāmagāma
6. The Mallas, capital Pāvā
7. The Mallas, capital Kusinārā
8. The Moriyas, capital Pipphalivana
9. The Videhas, capital Mithilā
10. The Licchavis, capital Vesāli
11-15, Tribes, as yet unidentified, mentioned
by Megasthenes
Nos. 1. 10 occupied in the sixth century B. C. the whole country east of
Kosala between the mountains and the Ganges. Those mentioned, as is
reported in other authors, by Megasthenes seem to have dwelt in his time
on the sea-coast of the extreme west of India north of the gulf of Cutch'.
It is naturally in relation to the Sākiyas that we have the greatest amount
of detail. Their territory included the lower slopes of the Himālayas, and
the glorious view of the long range of snowy peaks is visible, weather
permitting, from every part of the land. We do not know its boundaries
or how far it extended up into the hills or down into the plains. But the
territory must have been considerable. We hear of a number of towns
besides the capital - Chātumā, Sāmagāra, Khomadussa, Silāvati, Meda-
lumpa, Nagaraka, Ulumpa, Devadaha, and Sakkara. And according to an
.
ancient tradition preserved in the Commentary on the Digha? there were
80,000 families in the clan. This number (it is noteworthy that the auspi-
cious number 84,000 was not chosen) would, allowing for children and
dependents, mean a population of at least half a million. It would be
absurd to take this tradition as a correct, or even as an official enumeration.
We do not even know who first made the calculation. But it would be
equally absurd deliberately to ignore it. It is at least interesting to find
that even as late as Buddhaghosa the traditional estimate of the number of
the Sākiyans was still, in spite of the temptation to magnify the extent of
the 'kingdom' which the Buddha renounced, so limited and so reasonable
as this.
The administrative business of the clan, and also the more important
judicial acts, were carried out in public assembly, at which young and old
were alike. The meetings were held in a mote-hall- a
roof
supported by pillars, without walls. It is called Santhāgāra, a technical
term never used of the council chamber of kings. "
We have no account of the manner in which the proceedings were
conducted in the Sākiya mote-hall. But in the Maha-Govinda Suttanta
there is an account of a palaver in Sakka's heaven, evidently modelled
1 M'Crindle, Ancient India as described by Megasthenese, p. 144, cf. p. 156.
See Rh. D. , Dialogues of the Buddha, I, 147.
D. I, 91.
4 See the passages quoted at J. P. T. S. , 1909, 65.
mere
## p. 157 (#191) ############################################
VII ]
LOCAL ADMINISTRATION
157
>
more or less on the proceedings in a clan meeting. All are seated in a
specified order. After the president has laid the proposed business before
the assembly others speak upon it, and Recorders take charge of the
unanimous decision arrived at? . The actions of gods are drawn in imita-
tion of those of men. We may be sure that the composers and repeaters
of this story, themselves for the most part belonging to the free clans (and,
if not, to neighbouring clans familiar with tribal meetings) would make use
of their knowledge of what was consequently done at the mote-hall
assemblies. This is confirmed by the proceedings adopted in the rules
observed at formal meetings of the Chapters of the Buddhist Order. Quite
a number of cases are given in the Canon Law; and in no single case,
:
apparently, is there question of deciding the point at issue by voting on a
motion moved. Either the decision is regarded as unanimous ; or, if
difference of opinion is manifest, then the matter is referred for arbitration
to a committee of referees'. It is even quite possible that certain of the
technical terms found in the Rules of the Orders (ñatti for ‘motion,'
ubbāhikā for 'reference to arbitration, etc. ), are taken from those in use at
the mote-halls of the free clans. But however that may be, we are justified
by this evidence in concluding that the method of procedure generally
adopted in the mote-halls was not, as in modern parliaments, by voting on
a motion, but rather as just above explained.
A single chief (how or for what period chosen we do not know) was
elected as office holder, presiding over the Senate, and, if no senate were in
session, over the state. He bore the title of Raja which in this connexion
does not mean king, but rather something like Roman consul, or the
Greek archon. We hear at one time that Bhaddiya, a young cousin
of the Buddha, was ‘rāja’4, at another that the Buddha's father Suddhudana
(elsewhere spoken of as a simple clansman, Suddhodana the Sākiyan), held
that ranks.
We hear of mote-halls at some of the other towns besides the capital,
Kapilavatthu. And no doubt all the more important places had them.
The local affairs of each village were carried on in open assembly of the
householders held in the groves which, then as now, formed so distinctive
a feature in the long and level alluvial plain.
The clan subsisted on the produce of their rice fields and their cattle.
The villages were of grouped, not scattered, huts on the margin of the rice
field. The cattle wandered in harvest time, under the charge of a village
herdsman, through the adjoining forest (of which the village groves were a
remnant), and over which the Sākiyan peasantry had common rights.
5
>
1 Translated' in Dialogues, vol. II, pp. 259-264.
2 Translated in Rhys Davids' and Oldenberg's Vinaya Texts. See especially vol.
pp.
44 ff.
3 Vinaya Texts, III, pp. 49 ff.
4 Vinaya II, 181.
5 Digha II 52
III,
## p. 158 (#192) ############################################
158
[ CH
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
>
Men of certain special crafts, most probably not Sākiyans by birth-
carpenters, smiths, and potters for instance - had villages of their own ;
and so also had the Brāhmans whose services were often in request for
all kinds of magic. The villages were separated one from another by
forest jungle, the remains of the Great Wood (the Mahāvana), portions
of which are so frequently mentioned as still surviving throughout the
clanships. The jungle was infested from time to time by robbers, sometimes
runaway slaves. But we hear of no crime (and there was probably not
very much) in the villages themselves - each of them a tiny self-governed
republic.
Tradition tells that the neighbouring clan, the Koliyas, were closely
related by descent with the Sākiyası ; but we are not told much about the
former. Five of their townships besides the capital are referred to by
name: -- Halidda-vasana”, Sajjanela3, Sāpūga“, Uttara”, and Kakkara-pattae.
Every Koliyan was a Vyaggha pajja by surname, just as every Sākiyan was
a Gotama ; and in tradition the name of their capital Rāmagāma, so
called after the Rāma who founded it, is once given as either Kolanagara
or Vyagghapajja? The central authorities of the clan were served by a
body of peons or police, distinguished, as by a kind of uniform, by
a special form of head-dress. These men had a bad reputation for
extortion and violence. In the other clans we are told only of ordinary
servants. The tradition that the Koliyans and Sākiyans built a dam over
the river Rohini which separated their territories, and that they afterwards
quarrelled over the distribution of the store of water, may very well be
founded on fact.
Of the form of government in the Vajjian confederacy, comprising the
Licchavis, the Videhas, and other clans, we have two traditions, Jain
and Buddhist10. They are not very clear and do not refer to the same
matters, the Jain being on military affairs, while the Buddhist refers
to judicial procedure.
THE KINGDOMS. I. KOSALA
Kosala was the most important of the kingdoms in North India
during the life of the Buddhi. Its exact boundaries are not known.
But it must have bordered on the Ganges in its sweep downwards in
a south-easterly direction from the Himālayas to the plains at the modern
Allahābād. Its northern frontier must have been in the hills, in what is
now Nepāl ; its southern boundary was the Ganges; and its eastern
boundary was the eastern limit of the Sākiya territory. For the Sākiyas,
as one of our oldest documents leads us to infer, claimed to be Kosalansll.
1 Sumangala I, 258 ff.
2 M. I, 387; S. V, 115. 3 A. II, 62,
4 A, II, 194.
5 S. IV, 340.
6 A. IV, 281.
7 Sum. I, 262.
8 S. IV, 341.
9 Jat. V, 412-416.
10 Jacobi, Jaina Sutras, I, XII 11 Sutta Nipata, verse 422.
>
## p. 159 (#193) ############################################
VII ]
KOSALA
159
a
The total extent of Kosala was therefore but little less than that of France
to-day. At the same time it is not probable that the administration
was very much centralised. The instance of the very thorough Home Rule
enjoyed, as we have seen, by the Sākiyas should make us alive to the
greater probability that autonomous local bodies, with larger power than
the village communities, which were of course left undisturbed, were still
in existence throughout this wide territory.
One or two of the technical terms in use to describe such powers have
survived. Rāja-bhogga for example is the expression for a form of tenure
peculiar in India. The holder of such a tenure, the rāja-bhoggo, was
empowered to exact all dues accruing to the government within the bound-
aries of the district or estate granted to him. But he had not to render
to government any acco unt of the dues thus received by him. They were
his perquisite. He could hold his own courts, and occupied in many ways
the position of a baron, or lord of the manor. But there was a striking
difference. He could draw no rent. The peasantry had to pay him the tithe,
of the rice grown; and though the amount was not always strictly a tithe,
and by royal decree could be varied in different localities, the grantee could
not vary it. So with the import, or ferry, or octroi duties. The rate of
payment, and the places at which the levy could be made, were fixed by
the government. We have not enough cases of this tenure to be able to
interpret with certainty the meaning of all the details, and limits of space
prevent a discussion of them here. But the general principle is quite clear? .
It shows how easy would be the grant to local notabilities of local govern-
ment to this extent, and how narrow was the line of distinction between
the collection of dues by civil servants or farmers of the taxes and their
collection by a grantee in this way. This custom, thus traced back to so
early a period in the history of India, seems never to have fallen into abey-
ance, It certainly, in the period under discussion, was of manifest advan-
tage. But it must be admitted that it is, to English ideas, very strange -
so strange that our civilians made the mistake, in Bengal, of regarding all
such persons legally empowered to collect the land-tax as landlords, and of
endowing them accordingly with the much greater privileges and powers
of the English landlord. In the Buddhist period there is no evidence of
the existence, in North India, of landlords in our sense of that term.
It was the rise of this great power, Kosala, in the very centre of
Northern India, which was the paramount factor in the politics of the time
before the Buddhist reform. We do not know the details of this rise. But
there are purely incidental references imbedded in the ethical teachings in the
Buddhist books which afford us at least hints as to the final manner of it,
and as to the date of it. For instance we have the story of Dighāvu in the
1 D. I, 114, 127, 130 : cf. II, 50 and Divy. , 620, Vin. III, 221, with the Old Com.
mentary at 222, M. III, 133, Jāt. VI, 344, Sum. Vil. I, 245, 246.
## p. 160 (#194) ############################################
160
[ch.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
Vinaya? . There Brahinadatta, king of Käsi, invades Kosala, when Dighiti
was king at Săvatthi, and conquered and annexed the whole country ; but
finally restored it to Dighiti's son, with whom he had become on very
friendly terms. Other traditions inform us on the other hand of several
invasions of the Kāsi country by the then kings of Kosala, Vanka,
Dabbasena, and Kamsa? . And when that most excellent story, the Rājovada
Jātaka3- as good in humour as it is in ethics-was first put together to
represent two kings in conflict, the quite natural idea was to fix upon kings
of Kosala and Kāsi, and the author does so accordingly.
No references have so far been found in the books as to any contests
between Kosala and any other tribe or nationality. It would seem therefore
that the gradual absorption into Kosala of the clans and tribes in the
northern part of Kosala as we know it in the Buddha's time took place
without any such battle, campaign, or siege as was sufficiently striking to
impress the popular imagination ; but that when Kosala came into contact
with Kāsi there ensued a struggle, with varying result and lasting through
several reigns, which ended in the complete subjugation of the Kāsi country
by Kamsa, king of Kosala.
As to the approximate period of these events, we see that they
were supposed to have taken place not only before the time of Pasenadi,
who was born about the same time as the Buddha and lived about as long,
but also before the time of his father the Great Kosalan. We have four
kings of Kosala mentioned as taking part in these wars, and cannot be sure
that there were not others who had quieter reigns. It would be enough and
more than enough to allow, in round numbers, a century for all these
kings. And the period cannot be much longer than that. For the name
Brahmadatta could not have been older than towards the close of the
Brāhmaṇa literature ; and a century and a half before the birth of the
Buddha would about bring us to that.
The king of Kosala in the Buddha's time was Pasenadi. He was of
the same age as the Teacher; and though never actually converted, was
very favourable to the new movement, adopted its more elementary teach-
ings, and was fond of calling upon the Buddha either to consult him or
simply for conversation. A whole book of the Samyutta is devoted to such
talks, and others are recorded elsewhere. They are mostly on religion or
ethics, but some political and personal matters are occasionally mentioned
incidentally.
For instance five ‘rājas' are introduced discussing a point in
psychology with Pasenadi. Whatever the title may exactly imply it is
probable that we have the leaders of five clans or communities that,
1 l'inaya Texts, II, 293-305.
? Jät. I, 262 ;II, 403 ; III, 13, 168, 211; v, 1 12.
3 Jätaka II, 1.
4 M.
