Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c28.34

c28.34

§ 179. The Mahā-Bhārata says that Arājaka states could be easily conquered; that when an encounter took place between them and a strong foe, they broke like wood which does not know to bend.² This was true of all democratic republics. Once conquered they ceased to exist as a community. Their life was so much bound up with their state that life proved only co-extensive with the state and no further.