Vajji, Mahajanapadas

Centred around the Vaishali district of Bihar, the Vajjis(literate meaning pastoral nomads) were located north of the Ganga. This Mahajanapada stretched as far as the Nepal hills. Its western limit was the river Gandak which separated it from Malla and Kosala. In the east, it extended upto the forests on the banks of the river Kosi and Mahanadi. Unlike the Mahajanapadas previously discussed, the Vajjis had a different kind of political organisation. The contemporary literature refers to them as Ganasamgha, a term which wsa earlier used for a republic or an oligarchy. The Ganasamgha of this period represented a joint rule by a group of Kshatriya chiefs and not a rule by a single all-powerful king. This ruling class, members of which were called rajas, were now differentiated from different non-kshatriya group.

The Vajji state is said to have been a confederation of eight clans (atthakula) of whom the Videhas, Licchavis and the Jnatrikas were the most well known. The Videha had their capital at Mithila which has been identified with Janakpur in Nepal. The Ramayana associated it with the King Janaka, the Buddhist sources consider it a chiefship. Licchavis, the most well known of the ancient Indian Ganasamghas had their headquarters at Vaishali which was a large and prosperous city. The Jhatrikas were another clan which settled somewhere in the suburbs of Vaishali. To this clan belonged the Jain teacher, Mahavira. The other members of confederacy were the clans of the Bhogas, Kauravas, Ugras, Aiksavaras. Vaishali seems to have been the metropolis of the entire confederacy. Their affairs were managed by an assembly but they had no standing army or a proper system of collection of revenue from agriculture. According to a Jataka story, the Vajjis were ruled by many clan chiefs. In all likelihood the Vajji confederation took form after the decline and fall of the Videhan monarchy and was a flourishing non- monarchial state in the time of Mahavira and Gautama Buddha. The Magadhan King Ajatshatru is supposed to have destroyed this confederacy. He sowed discord among the chiefs by seeking the help of his minister Vassakara and then attacked the Licchavis.