[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.jayaswal-1924) › c12.13 # Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c12.13 Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c12.13 - **Language:** English ### [c12.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.jayaswal-1924.c12.13) § 21. Pāṇini, dealing with the formation of the word \*saṁgha\*, in III. 3. 86 (संघोद्धौ गणप्रशंंसयो:।) says that the word \*saṃgha\* (as against the regular \*saṃghāta\*,¹ derived from \*han\*, III 3. 76) is in the meaning of \*gaṇa\*. When Pāṇini has occasion to mention individual \*Saṃghas\*, he names communities which are known from monumental and other evidence to have been republican.² In his time \*Saṃgha\* denoted \*Gaṇa\*, and the \*\*religious\*\* Saṃgha does not appear to have come into prominence. In fact, as we shall see, the latter was a copy of the \*\*political\*\* Saṃgha. Known republican bodies are called by Kauṭilya \*Saṃghas\*.³ There is thus not much room to doubt that Saṃgha originally meant a republic. The most ancient work of the Buddhist, the Pāli Piṭaka, itself confirms this. The Majjhima Nikāya (I. 4. 5. 35) uses the terms \*saṃgha\* and \*gaṇa\* side by side, taking them to mean, without the fear of least confusion, the republics of the time of the Buddha: ‘\*imesaṃ pi hi bho Gotama saṃghānaṃ, ‘gaṇānaṃ seyyathīdaṃ Vajjinaṃ Mallānaṃ\*’ “and “this is so, O Gotama, in respect of the Saṃghas, “Gaṇas, for instance, the Vajjis, Mallas.” Thus \*saṃgha\* and also \*gaṇa\*, which are used here as in Pāṇini, synonymously, signified, \*par excellence\*, the republics. The republics were \*the saṃghas and the gaṇas\* at the time. Their secondary use, adoption by religious communities of the time, was just taking shape.⁴ - [Previous: c12.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.jayaswal-1924.c12.12) - [Next: c12.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.jayaswal-1924.c12.14) - [Up: c12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.jayaswal-1924.c12) ## Cites (2) - [Aṣṭādhyāyī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.vyakarana.astadhyayi-school.astadhyayi.3.3.86) — Pāṇini, Sanskrit - [Majjhimanikāya](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.majjhima) — Pāli --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.jayaswal-1924.c12.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.jayaswal-1924.c12.13) · Pramāṇa