A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c10.128

c10.128

∗ Śāntiparvan CXXX 27, 30-31, 35, 37-39. [^\dagger]: The political significance of gaṇa in the sense of a non-monarchical or a republican community was first pointed out (*Modern Review*, Calcutta, May 1913) by Mr. K. P. Jayswal who subsequently (J. B. O. R. S. 1915, pp. 173-174) reiterated some of his arguments in the course of his exposition of the following passage from the Mahābhārata. The point has since been treated with great thoroughness by Prof. D. R. Bhandarkar who has distinguished (op. cit., Lect. IV, passim) between the generic sense of gaṇa (namely, 'Government of the Many' or a republic of the Greek type), and its special sense (namely, a 'republic of a tribal character which was confined to the Kṣattriya order'). Dr. Narendra Nath Law, it may be noted, translates (*Modern Review*, September 1916) gaṇa in the Mahābhārata extract to be just quoted in the more general sense of 'an autonomous tribe' or 'a self-governing community.'