Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c13.25

c13.25

³ I take this opportunity to correct the interpretation which I put on the expression *rājaśabdopajīvinaḥ* formerly. I thought that it referred to all the citizens of a republic being called *rājāns*. But now I find that no such constitution existed. The republics mentioned in Buddhist documents, which we shall discuss presently, allowed the title only to the elected president, although the citizens in general are alluded to as *rājans*, in the sense that they composed the sovereign body, and also that every one had the possibility of being elected *Rājan*.