State and Government in Ancient India c13.49

c13.49

The Punjab and the Indus valley were pre-eminently the land of republics from *c.* 500 B. C. to 400 A. D. Unfortunately in the case of some of them, we know nothing but their names fortunately preserved by some grammarians. To this category belong the Vṛikas, the Dāmaṇis, the Parśvas and the Kambojas. The Trigarta-shashṭhas, according to Pāṇini (V. 3. 116), formed confederation of six states which, according to the *Kāśikā* (composed about a thousand years later), were Kauṇḍoparatha, Dāṇḍaki Kraushṭaki, Jālamāni, Brahmagupta and Jānaki. Coins issued with the legend *Trakatajanapadasa*, coinage of the Trakata (Trigarta) country, seem to have been issued by them.² It is likely that this confederation flourished in the Jullandar Doab and later became a unitary state under the name of the Kuṇindas, coins issued by whom, but belonging to a later period, have been found in large numbers.³ In the course of the description of Arjuna's conquests in the Punjab, *the Mahābhārata* mentions⁴ the Pañchagaṇa and Saptagaṇa republics. These were probably federations of five and seven republics. The federating units may have been some of the Punjab republics mentioned by Pāṇini.