CDS (I) 2022 General Knowledge · Question 93 of 120

Correct — B, Vajji. Of the sixteen mahajanapadas that took shape across northern India in the sixth century BCE, most were monarchies, but a handful were gana-sanghas — states in which sovereignty rested not with a single hereditary king but with an assembly of the heads of the leading kshatriya families, who between them chose the man who presided. The Vajji (Vrijji) of north Bihar was the best documented of them: a confederacy of clans with its capital at Vaishali, dominated by the Licchavis and including the Videhas of Mithila and the Jnatrikas, the clan into which Mahavira was born. Both the Buddhist and the Jaina traditions describe its collective decision-making, and the Buddha's remarks on why the Vajjis were hard to conquer — because they met often and in full, and decided in concert — are among the earliest descriptions of a deliberative assembly anywhere in Indian literature. Magadha under Ajatasattu eventually absorbed it.

• (a)Magadha — Magadha was a monarchy, and the most successful one of the age — Bimbisara and then Ajatasattu ruled from Rajagriha and later Pataliputra, and it was Ajatasattu's campaign that broke the Vajji confederacy. Magadha is the standard example of the opposite political form.
• (c)Avanti — Avanti, with its capital at Ujjayini and a second centre at Mahishmati, was a kingdom ruled by Pradyota and his line. It was one of the four great monarchies that survived into the fifth century BCE, not an oligarchy.
• (d)Kosala — Kosala was a monarchy under Prasenajit, ruling from Shravasti and Ayodhya. The Sakya clan of Kapilavastu, which was a gana-sangha, lay within Kosala's sphere — but Kosala itself was a kingdom.

The mahajanapadas were the sixteen large territorial states of the sixth to fourth centuries BCE listed in Buddhist and Jaina texts. They came in two political forms. In a monarchy a hereditary raja held power, was consecrated by elaborate sacrifice and taxed through officials. In a gana or sangha — the two words are used together — power lay with a corporate body of kshatriya heads, meeting in an assembly hall, taking decisions collectively and choosing the man who presided over them. Vajji, Malla and the Sakya and Koliya clans belonged to the second type; Magadha, Kosala, Avanti and Vatsa to the first.

The word gana-sangha is the whole question. It is often rendered as 'republic', which can mislead — these were not popular democracies but oligarchies, since only the heads of the ruling kshatriya lineages sat in the assembly and the labouring population had no part in it. The exam wants the political-form distinction, and the fastest route is to remember the four great monarchies of the age — Magadha, Kosala, Avanti and Vatsa — and rule them out. That leaves Vajji. It is also worth knowing why the gana-sanghas mattered: they clustered along the Himalayan foothills and in north Bihar, they were the states in which both the Buddha and Mahavira were born, and Kautilya's Arthashastra was still discussing how to deal with them centuries later. The bank's printed subject tag for this item is not History, but the question is unambiguously an ancient-history one.

• The Vajji confederacy had its capital at Vaishali in what is now Bihar, and the Licchavis were its dominant clan.
• In a gana-sangha, power rested with an assembly of heads of the leading kshatriya families rather than with a single hereditary king.
• Magadha, Kosala, Avanti and Vatsa were the four great monarchies among the mahajanapadas.
• Mahavira was born into the Jnatrika clan, part of the Vajji confederacy; the Buddha's Sakya clan of Kapilavastu was likewise a gana-sangha.
• Ajatasattu of Magadha conquered the Vajji confederacy, and Magadha's absorption of its neighbours is the central political story of the period.

• Translating gana-sangha as 'democracy'. Only the heads of ruling kshatriya lineages sat in the assembly.
• Forgetting that the Sakya and Malla clans were also gana-sanghas — Vajji is the usual answer only because it is the one most often listed among the sixteen.
• Mixing up Vaishali (Vajji's capital) with Rajagriha (Magadha's first capital) or Shravasti (Kosala's).

As a direct identification of the oligarchic state among the mahajanapadas, as a capital-to-state match, or as a statements item on the Vajji confederacy and its clans.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The capital of the Vajji confederacy was

  • (a)Rajagriha
  • (b)Shravasti
  • (c)Vaishali
  • (d)Kaushambi

  Answer(c) Vaishali — in present-day Bihar, the seat of the Licchavi-dominated Vajji gana-sangha. Rajagriha was Magadha's, Shravasti Kosala's and Kaushambi the capital of Vatsa.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Tirthankara, was born into which one of the following clans?

  • (a)Sakya
  • (b)Jnatrika
  • (c)Koliya
  • (d)Malla

  Answer(b) Jnatrika — a clan of the Vajji confederacy, at Kundagrama near Vaishali. The Sakyas of Kapilavastu were the Buddha's clan.