Public Administration in Ancient India c8.25

c8.25

But although the non-monarchical forms of government existed down to the fourth century A.D.,³ many forces had been at work for several centuries past to make monarchy the prevailing form of administration in the country.⁴ The most important of these factors was a great increase in the size of the State. As the Āryas moved eastward from the Punjab, the territory of the State tended steadily to grow. Now, it must have been found very difficult to manage the affairs of large kingdoms by means of popular institutions at a time when the representative system had not yet been invented.¹ Popular freedom had thus gradually to give way before the advance of the imperial idea. And when the success of Alexander’s invasion made manifest the weakness of a system of small independent States, the people probably welcomed, or at least submitted to, Chandragupta’s attempt to establish a centralised imperial government. Chandragupta had thus comparatively little difficulty in absorbing within the empire of Magadha all the States of Northern India, and this establishment of an imperial rule meant the sweeping away of all the free institutions of the country. In the words of the historian, Chandragupta “changed the name of freedom to that of bondage, for he himself oppressed with servitude the very people he had rescued from foreign dominion.”²