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Kālāma (Pāli: Template:Transliteration) was an ancient Indo-Aryan tribe of north-eastern South Asia whose existence is attested during the Iron Age. The Kālāmas were organised into a [[Gaṇasaṅgha|Template:Transliteration]] (an aristocratic oligarchic republic), presently referred to as the Kālāma Republic.Template:Sfn
Location
The Kālāmas and their capital of Kesaputta[1] were located on the Indo-Gangetic Plain between the river Sarayū and the Mallakas to the north, the Gaṅgā to the south, Vārāṇasī to the southwest, and the kingdom of Kosala to the west.Template:Sfn The territory of the Kālāmas covered only the countryside around their town.Template:Sfn
Name
The origin of the name of the Kālāmas has not yet been determined.Template:Sfn
The name of the Kālāma capital, Kesaputta originated from the Sanskrit word Template:Transliteration, meaning "hair" or "mane." The name of Kesapputta was related to the name of the Keśin, who were a sub-tribe of the Pāñcāla tribe mentioned in the [[Shatapatha Brahmana|Template:Transliteration]].Template:Sfn
History
The Kālāmas were an Indo-Aryan tribe in the eastern Gangetic plain in the Greater Magadha cultural region.[2][3] The Kālāmas originated as a branch of the Keśins, who were from the Pāñcāla, where they formed one of the three branches of the Pāñcāla tribe. From the Pāñcāla area, a branch of the Keśins founded Kesaputta, where they came to be known as the Kālāmas.Template:Sfn Similarly to the other populations of the Greater Magadha cultural area, Kalams were initially not fully Brahmanised despite being an Indo-Aryan people, they later became Brahmanised when Kosala was Brahmanised.[4]
By the time of the Buddha, the Kālāmas were a dependency of Kosala and its king Pasenadi, and the Buddha visited the Kālāmas at one point during his preaching. One of the Buddha's teachers, Āḷāra Kālāma,[5] belonged to the Kālāma tribe, as did the Buddha's disciple Bharaṇḍu.Template:Sfn
Pasenadi's son and successor Viḍūḍabha later annexed Kālāma into the Kosala kingdom. The Kālāmas did not request a share of the Buddha's relics after his death, possibly because they had lost their independence by then.Template:Sfn Similarly, the Vaidehas and the Nāyikas did not appear among the list of states claiming a share because they were dependencies of the Licchavikas without their own sovereignty, and the Bhaggas who were a dependency of Vatsa also could not put forth their own claim, while the Licchavikas, the Mallakas, and the Sakyas could claim shares of the relics.Template:Sfn
Political and social organisation
Republican institutions
The Kālāma were a [[kshatriya|Template:Transliteration]] tribe organised into a [[Gaṇasaṅgha|Template:Transliteration]] (an aristocratic oligarchic republic).Template:Sfn
Assembly
Like the other Template:Transliteration, the ruling body of the Kālāma republic was an Assembly of the Template:Transliteration elders who held the title of Template:Transliterations (meaning "chiefs").Template:Sfn
Like with other Template:Transliteration, the Assembly of the Kālāmas met in a santhāgāra located in their capital.Template:Sfn
The Council
The Assembly met rarely, and the administration of the republic was instead in the hands of the Council, which was a smaller body of the Assembly composed of councillors selected from the membership of the Assembly. The Council met more often than the Assembly.Template:Sfn
The Consul
The Kālāma Assembly elected for life a consul Template:Transliteration. The consul Template:Transliteration administered the republic with the assistance of the Assembly and Council.Template:Sfn
Religion
Unlike the other Template:Transliteration, the Kālāmas appear to have been disinterested in [[Śramaṇa|Template:Transliteration]] traditions such as Buddhism, which might have been an alternative reason why they did not demand a share of the relics of the Buddha. Since the Kālāmas were related to the Keśins, they might instead have been more inclined towards Brahmanism.Template:Sfn
References
- ↑ Political History of Ancient India: From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of Gupta Dynasty{{#if:Raychaudhuri|, Raychaudhuri}. University of Calcutta(1953)
- ↑ Cultural Remnants of the Indigenous Peoples in the Buddhist Scriptures. Buddhist Studies Review({Template:Date).
- ↑ Bronkhorst, J. (2007). Greater Magadha, Studies in the culture of Early India, p. 6. Leiden, Boston, MA: Brill.{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}(2007). ISBN 9789047419655
- ↑ Bronkhorst, J. (2007). Greater Magadha, Studies in the culture of Early India, p. 6. Leiden, Boston, MA: Brill.{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}(2007). ISBN 9789047419655
- ↑ Some Kṣatriya Tribes of Ancient India{{#if:Law|, Law}. University of Calcutta(1924)
Sources
- The Kānyakubja-Gauḍa Struggle{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Asiatic Society(1985). ISBN 9788192061580
- Republics in Ancient India, C. 1500 B.C.-500 B.C.{{#if:Sharma|, Sharma}. E. J. Brill(1968). ISBN 978-9-004-02015-3