Public Administration in Ancient India c7.17

c7.17

Speculation, however, is not of much help to us in ascertaining the origin of the State. Neither does our present knowledge of history assist us in any considerable degree in this matter. Perhaps the ultimate origin of the State in India, as elsewhere, is to be found in human nature. History, although unable to trace the origin of the State, gives us considerable aid in following its development. It tells us that men lived in India, as in most other countries, in some form or other of organised society from very early times. We know as yet very little of the condition of the pre-Aryan races of India, but the little knowledge that we do possess enables us to assert that some at least of these early inhabitants not only lived an organised political life, but even developed a fairly efficient system of public administration. It was, however, at the hands of the Aryans that the Indian State seems to have received its full development. The primitive Aryan State was perhaps based upon the family. It is probable that the family in the process of evolution grew into the clan, the clan expanded into the tribe, and finally, the tribe was absorbed in the State. The head of the family became the chief of the clan, then the leader of the tribe, and ultimately the ruler of the State. Although, however, the beginnings of the Indian State were connected with the family, the clan, and the tribe, the purely political idea gradually became more and more clear and dominant, with the result that in the course of time the State outgrew its original limitations, and became national. We do not know for certain at what period of time the patriarchal and tribal stages were passed in India, but the opinion may be hazarded that the national State had become firmly established in most parts of India many centuries before the commencement of the Buddhist period.