State and Government in Ancient India c13.96

c13.96

The meetings of the Assembly held for such religious or social functions may have been peaceful; but such was not very often the case when political matters of moment had to be discussed and decided. Many of the Assemblies of these republics, like the Parliaments and municipalities of the modern age, were torn by party factions; in fact the Buddhist literature, the *Arthaśāstra* and the *Mahābhārata* point out that family quarrels, party factions, lure of corruption, internal dissensions and mutual recriminations among the members of the Assembly constitute the main weaknesses of the Gaṇa states. Bhīshma emphasises again and again that the danger from foreign invasion is not at all so great as the danger from the internal quarrels.¹ The latter were often carried to such an extent that leaders and members of different parties would not even speak with one another. The language used by Bhīshma to describe the strained relations among the republican parties is almost a paraphrase of the words in Buddhist literature used to describe the conditions of the Lichchhavis after the seeds of dissentions were successfully sown among them by spies and agents of their enemy, king Ajātaśatru. The Buddha and Nārada, who viewed the republics with a sympathetic eye, warn them against these dissensions and give helpful suggestions as to how they were to be avoided.² Kauṭilya, who was unsympathetic to them, suggests several crooked methods by which the internal feuds could be further intensified (Bk. XI).