The Constitution of the Licchavis and the Sakyas

Summary

Dasaratha Sharma’s article ‘The Constitution of the Licchavis and the Sakyas’ reevaluates the political organization of two well-known republican clans of ancient India. He contests U.N. Ghoshal’s claim that the literary sources are too legendary to reconstruct these constitutions. Sharma argues that the Jataka stories, despite their narrative embellishments, preserve reliable information about Licchavi and Sakya institutions. He describes the Licchavi republic as a complex federated system comprising an assembly of 7,707 rājās, each representing a clan or village unitfile:///home/oai/share/563027_compressed-291-387.pdf. This assembly functioned like a senate, making decisions on war, peace and foreign policy, and electing officials such as the mahāsammata (chief) and a smaller council. Sharma compares this structure to the Cleisthenian constitution of Athens, noting the balance between central authority and local autonomyfile:///home/oai/share/563027_compressed-291-387.pdf. The Sakyas, to which the Buddha belonged, also maintained a republican form of government with an assembly of elders and elected leaders. The article suggests that the Licchavi and Sakya assemblies operated through formal debate and consensus, and that their officials were accountable to the people. Sharma emphasises the democratic spirit in these clans, where even kings were primus inter pares rather than autocrats. He argues that these republics influenced the political thought of early Buddhist communities and contributed to the Mauryan concept of dharma-based governance. The article challenges the view that ancient Indian polity was exclusively monarchical; instead, it highlights the coexistence of monarchies and republics and the possible mutual influence between them. By interpreting textual evidence and comparing it with known features of ancient republics elsewhere, Sharma reconstructs a vivid picture of republican life in ancient Indiafile:///home/oai/share/563027_compressed-291-387.pdf.