The Mauryan Polity c13.s12.109

c13.s12.109

(d) Megasthenes speaks of cities and countries where sovereignty was dissolved and democratic governments were set up.² Dr. Stein calls our attention to some more passages and has tried to show that these might refer to the forest tribes outside the pale of the state having their own organisations and leaders.¹ But it may also be held to denote the republican states which, as is evident from the *Arthaśāstra*, continued to flourish side by side with the monarchical state. Kauṭalya deals with these institutions which are styled as the *saṅghasandhi*, the policy to be adopted by the king towards them.² Some of these democratic states mentioned in the extant work are the Lichchivikas, the Vrijikas, the Mallakas, the Madrakas, the Kukuras, the Kurus, the Pāñcalas and others. These, K. P. Jayaswal calls, king-consul republics, while the Kambojas, Surāṣṭras and others are styled as nation-in-arms republics.³ This, then, is what the Greek accounts mean. Historians of Alexander's invasion to India refer to a number of free and autonomous states which, after Alexander's invasion and Candragupta's accession to the throne, were either merged in the imperial government or continued to maintain their prestige and power independently of the imperial rule. Kauṭalya has got a great regard for such constitutions as is evident from the following verse:—