The Mauryan Polity c6.s2.t2.1

c6.s2.t2.1

Among the vassal tribes mentioned in the Rock Edict (III), there occurs the term raja viṣa vajri according to the Shābhāzgarhi and Mānsehra texts.⁶ The Girnār version is a little different. The term in this text is rajavisayamhi. Bühler's reading was Visa and Vajri but this has not found acceptance with scholars. An attempt has been made to identify Vajri with Vrijika of the Arthaśāstra, and the Viṣas with the Bestæ of the Periplus.⁷ Until we alight on an unassailable ground we may regard the identification of Vajri with Vrijika probable. It is wrong to take Viṣas as a separate people. The word is certainly a corrupt form of Viṣaya and the full word is rāja-viṣaya. The most interesting fact is that almost all the rājaviṣayas including the Āndhras are known to have been republican.¹ This position is to be granted in the light of the constitutional history in the epoch of Kauṭalya and Alexander. The Kauṭalīya knows of many republics some of whom were citizen republics or in the language of Jayaswal ‘nation-in-arms’ republics. Under this category Kauṭalya mentions² the Kambojas, the Surāṣṭras, the Kṣatriyas (kathroi), the Śreṇis and others. Some of these are noticed by the classical writers as enjoying a republican form of constitution. The Arthaśāstra sets forth the relation between the imperial Government and these republics in four full pages.³ The underlying motive is to conquer the disunited Saṅgha and to overawe the united, with the policy of subsidy and good will. It would appear that this policy was vigorously pursued with the result “that the stronger republics survived the Mauryan imperialism, while the weaker ones succumbed. For example, the Surāṣṭras survived as attested to by the inscriptions of Balaśrī and Rudradāman.⁴