Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c25.26

c25.26

§ 135. What was the constitution of the Pulindas? They were a Dravidian people in the neighbourhood of the Rāshtrikas and the Bhojas. With the Dravidians, the normal constitution was monarchy. The Aitareya Brāhmaṇa says that it was from the Asuras that the institution of monarchy was copied by the Hindus when they were at war with the former.¹ Were the Pulindas influenced by the Aryan example of their neighbours? Aśoka does not call any of the group a kingdom but a 'ruling country' or district. There is the definite evidence of the Kāśikā and the Bṛihat Saṁhitā that the Pulindas were a Saṁgha.²