Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c16.13

c16.13

(*excellent system of internal government; for the multitude was* "*governed by the aristocracy, who exercised their authority* "*with justice and moderation*" (Arrian, Bk. V 25).¹ The description tallies with Kauṭilya's Vārtāśastropajīvinaḥ. They were prosperous by agriculture and kept themselves ready for war, fully depending on their own sword. It is unfortunate that the state has been left unnamed. Actual government vested in what the Greeks called an aristocracy. "But their parliament consisted of five thousand representatives."² The find-spot of Yaudheya coins suggests that this unnamed state on the Beas was probably of the Yaudheyas. Each member of parliament supplied one elephant to the state army) These Indians according to Arrian (V. 25), had elephants in greater number and of superior size and courage. As Alexander himself put it, the Macedonians had been "wont to fight only against small numbers,"³ "now "for the first time" they had to face really large armies. And they refused to move an inch forward amongst the nations whose very name, according to Alexander, filled his soldiers with terror.⁴ There was this unnamed Republic which covered the land on the other side of the Beas. There was also the great army of the Nanda waiting to give reception to the Macedonian, but the immediate cause of alarm was the prospect of meeting the republic beyond the river. Alexander's army "now began to lose heart" and "they began to hold conferences" where people "positively asserted that they would follow no further."⁵ It was from the doors of the unnamed republic that the campaign of Alexander assumed the form of retreat.