Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c13.75

c13.75

Again by Sūtra III. 3. 42, Pāṇini indicates a division of republics into two classes: (1) Where no 'upper-and-lower condition' exists, and (2) where the condition does exist.² By the first we may understand a one-chamber constitution and by the second a double-chamber constitution. The word used by Pāṇini for (1) is "anauttarādharya," and he lays down the rule that a *Saṃgha* to which this characteristic attached, was designated Kāya or Nikāya, meaning one 'body.'³ In Pāli, Nikāya has got the same primary meaning, a 'fraternity' (Childers). The Buddhist fraternity was composed of only one house Apparently the term was borrowed by the Buddhists from political phraseology. Three political Nikāyas are named in grammatical literature: Śāpiṇḍi-Nikāya, Mauṇḍi-Nikāya and Chikkali-Nikāya.⁴