Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c12.51

c12.51

city-state were vested in the chief deity, i.e. in the priesthood or a priest-king. The civic focus was the exalted temple, centre of an elaborate and carefully ordered secular administration under divine sanction ... In essence, the picture is one of a rigid and highly evolved bureaucratic machine, capable of organizing and distributing surplus wealth and defending it, but little conducive to the political liberty of the individual.’