In the south-west, the river Anomā or Rāptī separated the Koliyas from the kingdom of Kosala, to the east their neighbours were the Moriyas, and to their north-east they bordered on the Mallakas of Kusinārā.

[1] By the sixth century BCE, the Koliyas, the Sakyas, Moriyas, and Mallaka lived between the territories of the Kauśalyas to the west and the Licchavikas and Vaidehas to the east, thus separating the Vajjika League from the Kosala kingdom.

[1] Shortly after the Buddha's death, the Kauśalya king Viḍūḍabha, who had overthrown his father Pasenadi, invaded the Sakya and Koliya republics, seeking to conquer their territories because they had once been part of Kosala.

Viḍūḍabha finally triumphed over the Sakyas and Koliyas and annexed their state after a long war with massive loss of lives on both sides.

[1] The Koliyas' governing body was a general Assembly of the heads of the kṣatriya clans, who held the title of khattiya and of rājā ("ruler").

The sons of the rājās, who possessed the title of Koliya-kumāras ("princes of Koliya"), were also their uparājās (Viceroys), and would hereditarily succeed their fathers upon their deaths.

The judicial and legislative functions of the Assembly of the Koliyas were not distinctly separated, and it met to discuss important issues concerning public affairs, such as war, peace, and alliances.

These landholders were analogous to mediaeval European barons, and held the title of bhojakās, literally meaning "enjoyers (of the right to own land)," and used in the sense of "headmen.