Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c12.6

c12.6

§ 19. Prof. Rhys Davids, in his *Buddhist India*, showed that republican form of government obtained in the country of the Buddha and his neighbours. But it had not been pointed out that our-literature preserves technical names for Hindu Republics. One of these terms which first attracted my attention was the word Gaṇa. In the *Āchārāṅga Sūtra* of the Jaina branch of Hindu literature, I came across the terms Do-rajjāṇi and Gaṇa-rāyāṇi (II 3.1.10)¹ which struck me as defining constitutions. Do-rajjāṇi were states ruled by two rulers; similarly, Gaṇa-rāyāṇi would be states where Gaṇa or 'numbers' ruled. In other places, I found the word gaṇa alone standing for a gaṇa-state. Further enquiry supplied evidence to confirm my belief that Gaṇa denoted a republic and that its interpretation as then current ('tribe,' by Fleet and others; 'corporation of tradesmen or 'workmen,' by Bühler) was wrong. I futher noticed that Saṃgha was another term in the same sense. Some of the data on which my conclusions were based were set forth in the original essay published under the title of the present work² Now I am in possession of new materials which throw further light on the significance of the two terms.