Koliya republic

Origins

The Koliyas lived east of the Shakya republic, across the Rohini river in the Terai of modern Nepal and India. They emerged as a self-governing clan by the 7th or 6th century BCE, with their main town at Ramagrama. The two clans intermarried, and Buddhist tradition makes Maya, mother of the Buddha, a Koliya princess.

Rule and society

Like the Shakyas, the Koliyas were governed by an assembly of clan heads. They grew rice on land watered by the Rohini, and Buddhist texts tell how a quarrel with the Shakyas over its water nearly led to war until the Buddha reconciled them. They were dependent on the larger Kingdom of Kosala.

Decline and legacy

After the Buddha's death the Koliyas received a share of his relics and built a stupa at Ramagrama, which survives in Nepal. They were absorbed by Kosala and then by Magadha in the 5th century BCE.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.