State and Government in Ancient India c10.6

c10.6

The historic method being then unknown, the evolution of the state through various stages is not discussed by ancient Indian writers. The available evidence, however, shows that the state in the early Vedic period was still tribal. The Yadus, the Turvaśas and the Bharatas, for instance, who played a prominent part in the Vedic history, had for a long time no permanent territorial basis for their states; the latter moved along with the peoples of their tribes and had thus only a tribal basis. In the later Vedic period, however, the state became territorial; we have clear references to the different tribes settling down in the different parts of the country,¹ and to kings becoming masters both of their people as well as their country (*rāshtra*).² In the later Vedic period the emperor is described as one who rules over the earth bounded by the oceans.³ The different stages, however, by which the state gradually became territorial cannot be clearly visualised from the scanty evidence available to us at present.