Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c12.21

c12.21

§ 22. A wrong value to *gaṇa* has been assigned in the Dictionary of Monier-Williams which has misled many modern students of Sanskrit literature. Monier-Williams translated the word by the English word *tribe*. This meaning was adopted by the late Dr. Fleet in his translation of the Gupta Inscriptions in connexion with the *Mālava-gaṇa* of those records. When my interpretation was published, Dr F W Thomas, the foremost Indianist scholar in England, pointed out that the 'tribe' meaning was to be given up. And when Dr Fleet insisted on the correctness of his rendering—'tribe'—Dr Thomas challenged him to show that meaning from Sanskrit literature. Dr. Fleet found no authority except that of modern English translations of the Raghuvamśa and the Mahā-Bhārata. Dr Thomas drew attention to the fact that the St. Petersburg Dictionary and some later Dictionaries never authorised and accepted the 'tribe' interpretation.¹ Further data collected by me on the point leave no room for controversy.