State and Government in Ancient India c13.115

c13.115

The evidence of the grammarians also points to the same conclusion. When Patañjali refers to a Saṁgha as *pañchakaḥ* or *daśakaḥ* or *viṁśakaḥ*,² he probably has the strength of its executive in mind, which consisted usually of five or ten or twenty persons. When the *Anatagaḍadasao*³ refers to ten principal Daśārahas headed by Samudravijaya and to Baladeva and his four deputies, it obviously has the number of the executives of the republics in view. The *Mahāvagga* also speaks of five different kinds of Saṁghas, namely those who had a *vagga* (executive)¹ of four, five, ten, twenty or more.