Kālāma
Republican tribe in Iron-Age India
- 3 min read
- 4 chapters
Related on Lably
Through Tribe, South Asia and Oligarchy
Location
The Kālāmas and their capital of Kesaputta 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. The territory of the Kālāmas covered only the countryside around their town.
Sign in to keep reading
3 more chapters are free with a Lably account.
Name
The origin of the name of the Kālāmas has not yet been determined.
The name of the Kālāma capital, Kesaputta originated from the Sanskrit word keśa, 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 Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa.
History
The Kālāmas were an Indo-Aryan tribe in the eastern Gangetic plain in the Greater Magadha cultural region. 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. 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.
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, belonged to the Kālāma tribe, as did the Buddha's disciple Bharaṇḍu.
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. 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.
Political and social organisation
Republican institutions
The Kālāma were a kṣatriya tribe organised into a gaṇasaṅgha (an aristocratic oligarchic republic).
Assembly
Like the other gaṇasaṅgha, the ruling body of the Kālāma republic was an Assembly of the kṣatriya elders who held the title of rājās (meaning "chiefs").
Like with other gaṇasaṅgha, the Assembly of the Kālāmas met in a santhāgāra located in their capital.
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.
The Consul
The Kālāma Assembly elected for life a consul rājā. The consul rājā administered the republic with the assistance of the Assembly and Council.
Religion
Unlike the other gaṇasaṅgha, the Kālāmas appear to have been disinterested in Śramaṇa 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.