India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c12.s6.5

c12.s6.5

But besides *Saṅgha* there were other elementary forms of democratic institutions in existence amongst those *āyudhajīvins*, three of which as *Śreṇi*, *Pūga* and *Vrāta* are particularly noteworthy. The word *Śreṇi* possessed a political significance also as shown by the expression *Kshatriya-śreṇi* found in the *Arthaśāstra* for a class of *Vārtā-śastropajīvins*. The *Mahābhārata* also knows of *Śreṇi* as a political institution. It mentions *Śreṇis* fighting on the side of Duryodhana (*Śreṇayo bahusāhasrāḥ saṁśapatakagaṇāścha ye*, Karṇaparva, V.40). These must be corporations of fighting Kshatriyas. Pāṇini’s *sūtra* II.1.59, *Śreṇyādayaḥ kṛtādibhiḥ*, shows the political development at work among the *Āyudhajīvan* peoples organising themselves into new *Śreṇis* and *Pūgas*. Bands of *āyudhjīvin* warriors were coming under the general influence of political awakening and emerging into organised political life. The linguistic formation such as *aśreṇayaḥ śreṇayaḥ kṛitāḥ Śreṇikṛitāḥ* points to these new political developments. Similarly *Pūga-bhūtāḥ*, (*apūgāḥ pūgā bhūtāḥ*, 'those who were not organised as *pūga* became so organised'), and *Eka-bhūtāḥ*, 'tribes organising themselves as one political unit under a common ruler' (*ekādhīna*) or king.