Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c18.40

c18.40

According to the implication of the commentary, the *Rāshtrika-Sāpatya* (*Sāpateyyam*) or 'board of leaders' were not hereditary.⁵ They were therefore elected. The mention in the Pāli authority goes to indicate that the *Rāshtrika* constitution was also very probably known to Eastern India. Like the *Bhaujya* this too gave a national name to the *Rāshtrikas* of the West. The country named Su-rāshtra of Western India probably owed its origin to a *Rāshtrika* constitution. In the Artha-Śāstra, the Su-rāshtras are a republic where no king-consul was allowed.⁶ The territorial appellations Rāshtrika and Su-rāshtra seem to have been derived from this republican constitution.