Nāya

Nāya (Prākrit: 𑀦𑀸𑀬 Nāya; Pāli: Nāta; Sanskrit: Jñāta) was an ancient Indo-Aryan tribe of north-eastern South Asia whose existence is attested during the Iron Age. The population of Nāya, the Nāyikas, were organised into a (an aristocratic oligarchic republic), presently referred to as the Nāya Republic, which was part of the larger Vajjika League. The Nāyikas lived in the territory of the former kingdom of Mahā-Videha, whose borders were the Sadānirā river in the west, the Kauśikī river in the east, the Gaṅgā river in the south, and the Himālaya mountains in the north. The Nāyikas themselves were principally located in a small area around a minor town called either Kuṇḍagāma (Kuṇḍagrāma in Sanskrit) or Kuṇḍapura in Pāli, which served as the Nāyika capital and was located somewhere close to the Licchavika and Vajjika capital of Vesālī to its northeast. Other Nāyika settlements included a northeastern suburb of Vesālī named Kollāga, as well as a named Dūīpalāsa that was nominally part of the Nāyikas' settlement at Kollāga but was physically located outside of it. The name of Nāya is attested in Prākrit texts in the forms of Nāya, Nāyae, Nāe, and Nāī; in Pāli texts, they are called Nāta and Nātha; Sanskrit texts refer to them as Jñāta; and northern Buddhist texts contain the form of the name. The name Nāya is the Prākrit form of the Sanskrit word jñāta, meaning "kinsfolk," and which was later adopted as tribal name. Videha#Monarchic period The Nāyikas were a sub-group of the Videha tribe who in the eastern Gangetic plain in the Greater Magadha cultural region. In the 7th or 6th century BCE, the Licchavikas invaded the Vaidehas, replaced their monarchy by a republican system, and settled down in the southern part of the former Mahā-Videha kingdom. After this, the Nāyikas appear as an independent people with a republican state organisation, although they continued considering themselves as Vaidehas. Once the Licchavikas had established their own republican state, they founded the Vajjika League led by themselves, and which the Nāyikas, as well as the Vaidehas living in the north of the former Mahā-Videha kingdom, joined.