India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c13.s1.4

c13.s1.4

*ACROPOLIS*—But it is more in the development of the *Janapada* State through the ages that we find a striking parallel with the Greek City-State. The *polis* or the city was the nerve-centre of the City-State, and it was opposed to the open village. The "fluid" term *polis* signified the acropolis or the fortified town. In India also each *Janapada* had its fortified town or capital. An interesting list of sixteen *Mahājanapadas* with their names of capitals is well-known in the Buddhist texts, and similarly twenty-five *Janapadas* in the Jaina literature together with names of their capitals.