State and Government in Ancient India c13.135

c13.135

Want of adequate reliable data handicaps the historian perhaps in no other sphere so much as in the case of the republics. We get only a dim and blurred picture of their constitutions and their working. But what little we know shows that the states were fairly efficient and prosperous. They offered much more stubborn resistance to Alexander the Great than that put forth by the contemporary monarchies. Patriotism and appreciation of liberty were much more genuine among them than among the monarchical states. Trade and industry also prospered under their regime ; the Punjab and Sindh republics were studded with numerous and prosperous cities. They encouraged freedom of thought, which in its turn resulted in philosophical progress. This is particularly noteworthy about the Eastern Republics, whose citizens have made rich contributions to the philosophy as developed in the Upanishads, Buddhism and Jainism. In the Indus valley also there were many philosophers who impressed the Greeks by their theories and views.