Public Administration in Ancient India c5.32

c5.32

We now pass on to the second important feature of early Indian society—the family. Man is a gregarious animal, and in the very earliest stages of social evolution, the family—and not the individual—was the unit of society.¹ From this starting-point social progress seems to have taken place concurrently in two distinct—and, in fact, opposite—directions. One movement led to the formation of larger and still larger associations, such as the clan, the tribe, and the village, culminating in the State. The other movement consisted in the gradual emancipation of the component parts of the family, thus giving rise to the individual. And this, we may take it, was what happened in India as in other countries.