The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c6.s7.2

v1.c6.s7.2

The expression that is used in the Vedic and early Buddhist texts in a purely political sense is *rāṣṭra*. Thus we have reference in a famous laudatory poem of the *Atharvaveda* to the *rāṣṭra*, ‘royal territory’, of king Parikshit. The *purohita* or royal chaplain is the *rāṣṭra-gopa* or ‘protector of the realm’. In the early Buddhist texts the word has become a synonym of *janapada* in its political aspect. It is not directly referred to in the Aśokan epigraphs but may be implied by the derivative *Raṭhika*, i.e. *Rāṣṭrika*, possibly identical with the *Rāṣṭriya* of the Junāgaḍh rock inscription of Rudradāman. Unlike *janapada* it frequently occurs in inscriptions from the fourth century A.D. onwards as the designation of an administrative unit. The *janapada* styled Sātavāhani-hāra in the Sātavāhana period became known as Sātāhani-raṭṭha (rāṣṭra) in the early Pallava age.