Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c40.18

c40.18

The division of a kingdom in the period between 600 B. C. and 600 A. C. is made into 'the capital' and 'the country'.¹ The former is designated *Pura*² or *Nagara*³ (the City) and occasionally *Durga*⁴ (the Fort), and the latter is called *Janapada*, with synonyms in *Rāshtra* and *Deśa*. The expression *Jānapada*, a derivative from *janapada*, we find occurring in the Pāli Canon, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahā-Bhārata and other books, and in inscriptions. In our day, it has been taken to mean an inhabitant of *janapada*. Its use as a technical term has been missed. This is due to the fact that the term is generally found in the plural e. g. *jānapadāḥ* (जानपदाः) which has been translated as 'the people of the *Janapada*.' Modern writers have further made the mistake of regarding *Janapada* as a province which is against all ancient authority. It really means the whole area of a kingdom, minus the capital constitutionally.⁵ The technical significance of the *Jānapada* as a collective institution has now been established by Khāravela's inscription of c. 165 B. C.⁶ Mediæval commentators not knowing that there was a collective institution *Jānapada*, 'corrected' the singular form into the plural *Jānapadāḥ*. A very good example of this is verse 54 (ch. XIV) of the Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa of the Rāmāyaṇa.¹ King Daśaratha is sought to be intimated: "The Paura, the Jānapada, and "the Naigama are present respectfully waiting for Rāma's "consecration (as Crown-Prince)". The verb *upatiṣṭhati* (*'is waiting'*) is in the singular and this requires the subjects in each case joined on by *cha* ('and', 'as well as') to be in the singular. But in the text only the *Naigama* (corporate association of guild-merchants of the capital) is kept in the singular and the word *Jānapada* has been altered into a plural nominative and plural instrumental.² The instrumental form is resorted to for a forced grammatical justification ('the Jānapadas *with* the Naigama'). The correct reading, in the nominative singular, *Jānapadaścha*, is still found in some MSS. But it is rejected by modern editors as incorrect.³