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Public Administration in Ancient India c9: Chapter VI: Political Divisions

Public Administration in Ancient India c9

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Chapter VI: Political Divisions

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FROM very early times down to the fourth century B.C., the country was divided into a large number of independent States—Kingdoms, Oligarchies, or Republics. In the Vedic Age, there was a large number of tribes who inhabited the Punjab. The most important of these tribes were the Pūrus, the Yadus, the Turvasas, the Druhyus, and the Anus.¹ As the Āryans advanced eastward and southward the number of Āryan States steadily increased, either by the establishment of new administrations or by the re-modelling of the pre-Āryan governments then existing.

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¹ Mahābhārata, Ādi (Sambhava) Parva, Sec. 82. It is not exactly known whether all these tribes were Āryan, or some of them were composed of mixed races.

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In the Brahmanic period, the chief nations were the Kurus, the Pāñchālas, the Kosalas, the Kāsis, and the Videhas. The Kurus and the Pāñchālas were so intimately connected with each other that they practically formed one nation. The Kosalas, the Kāsis, and the Videhas formed a sort of confederacy, and their relations with the Kuru-Pāñchāla peoples perhaps were not always very friendly. The Kuru-Pāñchālas occupied the middle country (madhya-deśa), while the other three nations occupied the country to the east.¹

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¹ Cf. Macdonell’s Vedic Index, I. p. 154. Pancha-janah, the five peoples, are mentioned under various names in Vedic literature. Who are meant by the five is very uncertain. According to Zimmer, the five tribes of the Anus, Druhyus, Yadus, Turvasas, and Pūrus are meant, and Macdonell seems to incline to this view. In the Brihad-Devatā, several different meanings of the term are given.

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The Pāli Pitakas mention sixteen great countries (Mahā-janapadāḥ). In the sixth century B.C. they were:

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(1) Anga, near modern Bhagalpur, with capital Champā;

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(2) Magadha, or South Behar, with capital at Rājagriha and afterwards at Pātaliputra;

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(3) Kāsi, with capital at Kāsi, modern Benares;

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(4) Kosala, with capital at Srāvastī on the borders of Nepal;

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(5) Vrijji, the country of the Vajjians, who were composed of eight confederate clans, of whom the Lichchhavis and the Videhas were the most powerful. The capital of the Videhas was Mithilā, and that of the Lichchhavis, Vaisālī;

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(6) The country of the Mallas, who were divided into two independent clans, and whose territory was on the mountain slopes to the east of the Sākiya land;

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(7) Cheti, the country of the Chedis, who perhaps had two distinct settlements, one in Nepal and the other to the east or south-east of Kosambī;

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(8) Vatsa or Vamsa, of which Kosambī was the capital. It lay north of Avantī and along the banks of the Jumna;

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(9) The country of the Kurus, with its capital at Indraprastha, near modern Delhi;

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(10) The country of the two Pāñchālas, to the east of the land of the Kurus, with capitals at Kāmpilya and Kanauj;

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(11) The Matsya country, to the south of the Kurus and west of the Jumna;

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(12) The country of the Surasenas, with its capital at Mathurā, to the south-west of the Matsya country and west of the Jumna;

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(13) The country of the Arsakas, on the banks of the Godāvarī, with its capital at Potana or Potali;

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(14) Avantī, afterwards called Mālava, with its capital, Ujjayinī;

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(15) Gandhāra (modern Kandahar), including Eastern Afghanistan and North-western Punjab, with its capital, Taksha-silā;

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(16) Kāmboja, the country near modern Sindh, with its capital at Dvārakā.¹

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¹ Vide Vinaya Texts, VII. 1, 1, footnote, and Rhys Davids, Buddhist India.

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This list is not at all exhaustive. The whole of South India is ignored, and so also the greater part of the Punjab. Of the States mentioned in Buddhist books, Kosala was at first the paramount power, but its glory sank as Magadha rose into prominence, and at last it became subject to the latter.

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Our knowledge of the political divisions of India in the fourth century B.C. is derived from the Greek accounts. These accounts inform us that, at the time of Alexander's invasion, the Punjab was occupied by a large number of independent nations, the most important of whom were called by the Greeks the Assakenoi, the Glausai, the Kathaioi, the Oxydrakai, and the Malloi. Besides these, there were two large kingdoms ruled over by Ambhi and Poros respectively. To the east were situated the countries of the Mandei, the Malli, the Modogalingae, the Modobae, the Molindae, the Colubae, and others. The Saurasenas were an important nation and possessed two large cities, Methora and Cleisobora. The region of the Ganges was inhabited by two powerful nations, the Prasii and the Gangaridae.¹ "The Prasii," says Megasthenes, "surpass in power and glory every other people, not only in this quarter, but one may say in all India."² The Calingae (the three Kalingas) were also a powerful race, who had their capital at Parthalis. To the south, the most important country was that of the Āndhras, a powerful race which possessed numerous villages, and thirty towns defended by walls and towers.

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¹ Alexander's Invasion (McCrindle).

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² Megasthenes, Fragment LVI.

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The greater part of the peninsula of Gujrat was occupied by the Saurāṣṭras, who had some fine cities. Near the extreme south were the Pāṇḍyas, “a race ruled by women.”¹ Besides these, there were the aboriginal tribes who lived chiefly on the hills.

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¹ Megasthenes, Fragment LVI. ² Rāmāyaṇa (Griffith’s trans.), Bk. II. ch. 10. ³ Mahābhārata, Bhishma Parva.

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In the Rāmāyaṇa, Dasaratha, speaking of the extent of his sway, mentions the following States :

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“Mine are the tribes in eastern lands
And those who dwell on Sindhu’s sands.
Mine is Surashtra far away,
Sauvira’s realm admits my sway ;
My hest the southern nations fear,
The Angas and the Vangas hear.
And as lord paramount I reign
O’er Magadh and the Matsya’s plain,
Kosal and Kasis’ wide domain
All rich in treasures of the mine
In golden corn, sheep, goats, and kine.”²

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The Mahābhārata gives a long list of over two hundred names of nations and tribes who dwelt in India or in countries bordering on it.³ In the Viṣṇupurāṇa we find the following list of the important nations inhabiting Bhārata-varṣa : “The Kurus and the Pāñchālas in the middle district ; the people of Kāmarūpa in the east ; the Pundras, the Kalingas, the Magadhas, and the southern nations in the south ; in the extreme west the Saurāṣṭras, the Sūras, the Bhīras and the Arbudas; the Karūshas and the Mālavas dwelling in the Pāripātra mountains; the Sau-vīras, the Saindhavas, the Hūnas, the Sālvas, the Sākalas, the Madras, the Rāmas, the Ambasthas, and the Pārasīkas in the Punjab, and in the territory comprising north-western India and modern Afghani-stan.¹ This list, however, fails to render us much assistance, as we do not know what period of history it refers to. Perhaps a portion of the list refers to an early period, while some names are later additions.

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¹ Vishnu Purāna, Bk. II. ch. 3.

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In early times, the States were generally small in size. In the Heroic Age, the conquests of the warrior-kings added considerable territories to their dominions. But it seems that the movement towards the forma-tion of extensive kingdoms did not begin until about the eighth or seventh century B.C. Once started, however, the movement steadily grew in strength. Thus we find that the Kingdom of Magadha had its territories augmented under rulers like Bimbisāra, Ajātasatru, and Mahāpadma Nanda, until it became the largest State in Northern India. And its progress did not stop there.

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Soon after the departure of Alexander from India, Chandragupta, with the help of his minister, Chānakya, succeeded in bringing the whole of Northern India under his imperial control, and the empire of his grandson Asoka included the entire continent of India with the exception of the countries of Chola, Pāndya, Keralaputra and Satiyaputra lying to the extreme south of the peninsula.¹ But this vast fabric fell into pieces not long after Asoka’s death. The centre of political predominance then shifted to the Āndhra country, which succeeded in bringing under its sway the whole of the Deccan as well as a considerable part of Northern India. In the fourth century after Christ, Samudragupta and his son Chandragupta Vikramāditya revived for a time the lost glory of Magadha by re-establishing the Magadhan empire. The dominion under the direct control of the early Gupta Emperors comprised almost the whole of Northern India, while many of the kingdoms in the other parts of the country were attached to the Empire by bonds of subordinate alliance. The Gupta Empire was broken up by the incursions of the Huns in the latter part of the fifth century A.D., and the Gupta Kings sank into the position of local Rājās, ruling over a limited extent of territory. Yasodharman of Mālava was the next ruler to aspire to the position of an imperial sovereign.² In the seventh century, the political suzerainty of Northern India passed to Kanauj under Harshavardhana, whose victorious arms and wise statesmanship gathered together for the last time the scattered fragments of the North-Indian Empire.¹ In the country beyond the Vindhyas, the Chālukyas had already founded a powerful empire, and in the eighth and ninth centuries after Christ they fought with another great nation, the Rāṣṭrakūṭas, for imperial dominion over the Deccan with varying success. In the ninth and tenth centuries the Pāla Kings of Bengal made themselves masters of large territories, and some of them assumed titles of paramount sovereignty.² The Cholas in South India rose into prominence in the tenth century, and under Rajendra Chola they succeeded in conquering not only the whole of South India, but also Kalinga and Ceylon. In the meanwhile, the Rājpūts had appeared on the scene and had occupied Kanauj, Delhi, and Central India, and founded settlements in the country called after them ‘Rājasthān.’ The new as well as the old nations fought with one another for supremacy, but no King after Harsha seems to have succeeded in establishing a stable empire in any part of India. The country thus continued to be governed by a number of independent or semi-independent rulers, until the conquest of India by the Mahomedans deprived the people of their liberty, and brought about a rearrangement of the political boundaries of Indian States.

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¹ Mr. Vincent Smith says: “Asoka’s empire, therefore, comprised the countries now known as Afghanistan, as far as the Hindu Kush, Baluchistan, Makran, Sind, Kachh (Cutch), the Swat valley, with the adjoining regions, Kasmir, Nepal, and the whole of India proper, except the extreme south, Tamilakam or Tamil Land. His dominions were far more extensive than British India of to-day, excluding Burma.” Asoka (second edition), p. 81.

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² Yasodharman claimed to be the lord of Northern India from the Brahmaputra to the Arabian Sea and from the Himālaya to Mount Mahendra.

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¹ According to the Rājataranginī, Lalitāditya-Muktāpīda of Kasmir in the eighth century undertook a dig-vijaya, and became paramount sovereign over a large part of Northern India. But this account seems to be greatly exaggerated. Bk. IV.

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² The Bhagalpur grant of Nārāyana-Pāla asserts that the second Pāla King, Dharma-Pāla, acquired the sovereignty of Mahodaya (Kanauj) by conquering Indrarāja and others, but bestowed it on Chakrāyudha, the monarch who had been deposed by Krishnarāja, the Rāṣṭrakūṭa King. The same event is referred to in the Khalimpur charter of Dharma-Pāla himself, which says: “With a sign of his eyebrows gracefully moved, he made over to the illustrious King of Kanyakubja his own golden water-pitcher of coronation, lifted up by the delighted elders of Pānchāla, and acquiesced in by the Bhoja, Matsya, Madra, Kuru, Yadu, Yavana, Avantī, Gandhāra and Kirāta Kings, bent down while bowing with their heads trembling.” Quoted by D. R. Bhandakar in Epigraphia Indica, Vol. VII. p. 27. Another Pāla King claims to have exterminated the Hūnas and to have extended his sway over the whole of Northern India.

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The history of the variations of political boundaries in India is full of interest to the student of public administration. The success achieved on several occasions in establishing an imperial government for the whole or a large part of India, and the failure to maintain such an empire, show that while the people were striving after an imperial unity, the physical difficulties in the way of its realisation were too great to be easily overcome before the advent of the contrivances of modern science.

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