Hindu Administrative Institutions c7.s2.t2.73

c7.s2.t2.73

Another criticism offered is that the idea of patriotism was not a phenomenon realized in ancient India but is one entirely of modern growth. The statement is undoubtedly true of the Western countries where the idea of a state as a nation grew only very recently. In England the common sentiments of nationality were reckoned only after the Reformation. In other countries of Europe it was only a later idea of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This was not so in ancient India, which had realized an organized state composed of organized nations long before the dawn of the historical period. The oneness of the country and the ideal of every monarch to make a *digvijaya* and achieve sole rule over the world extending from the Cape Comorin to the Himalayas indicate beyond doubt the existence of a strong national feeling in the country. Intercourse between the southern regions and the north of India was sufficiently frequent as is evident from the two epics the *Rāmāyaṇa* and the *Mahābhārata*, not to speak of other literature. Towards a common enemy all the nations of India, north and south, could be called to join arms.