Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c18.18

c18.18

§ 94. The Aitareya Brāhmaṇa describes the Vairājya as a national constitution of some of the 'nations' of the North. The locality is further defined by the words "by the side of the Himālayas." In the time of the Yajur Veda such constitution was followed in the South. This shows that this from of government was not confined only to the North but was adopted in widely different localities.² I have rendered the term, taking it literally, as "the king-less constitution."³ According to the Aitareya the whole country or nation (Janapada) took the consecration of rulership. There is no doubt that this was a real democratic constitution. By way of example the Uttara-Madras and the Uttara-Kurus are given in the Aitareya as observing this constitution. The grammatical literature mentions the Madras defined according to *diś* or direction, which signifies that there were at least two Madras.⁴ The Madras were republican in the time of Pāṇini and they were so up to the 4th century A. C. when the Guptas encountered them.⁵ It seems that the Uttara-Madras or the Higher Madras had a somewhat different constitution from that of the Lower Madras. Now, the Uttara-Kurus in later literature have passed into the region of fable and mythology, where they are noted for prosperity and life of enjoyment.¹ In the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, they are a historical people like the Madras. Apparently they, as a separate people, disappeared in later times and the story of their material prosperity transferred them to the region of folklore, a fate very common in this country where history has been often barbarised into mythology.²