Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c34.5

c34.5

§ 198A. Megasthenes, as observed before², records the Hindu tradition current in his time that Monarchy was the earliest form of organised government in India. This is supported by the Ṛig-Veda where Monarchy is the normal and the only form of government known. Monarchist writers, as we have seen, utilised this fact as an argument against non-kingly forms of constitution.³ After monarchy, Megasthenes was told, republican experiments were made. As the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa puts it, it was in '*the firmly* *established* Mid-land' where monarchy held its own¹; that is, the change from Monarchy to republican form to which Megasthenes alludes, did not occur there. This Mid-land was the land from Kurukshetra to Prayâga—the valleys of the Jumna and the Ganges, which became the seat of the Aryan conquerors and Aryan monarchy. The Purâṇic history also confirms this. Its ruling houses cover the Middle Country, going beyond only in one direction—the East. The constitution of the East ('Prâchî') according to the Aitareya, was Sâmrâjya,² which was a species of monarchy,—meaning, literally, 'a collection of monarchies,' i.e., a Federal Imperialism.³