Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c40.5

c40.5

§ 247. Just about the time of the rise of large monarchies we find developed a popular institution of great constitutional importance. The period succeeding the Vedic, from the Mahā-Bhārata War down to the end of the Brihadrathas (700 B. C.)¹—is characterised by states which were co-extensive with their respective nations and lands inhabited by them. We may call that period, the epoch of National States and National Monarchies. The Bharatas,² and Pañchālas,³ for instance, had their own national kings; and so had the Videhas; the nation called Aikshvākas⁴ (Aita. Br. to Patañjali) had their own king. Earlier than 600 B. C. we find a tendency in Indian states to develop what we may call non-national, territorial Monarchies. The national basis begins to give way to a propensity for encroachment by one national unit upon others, and of amalgamation. Large states arise which are no more national but merely territorial units. We find for instance the old Aikshvāka- *janapada* transforming itself into *Kāśi-Kosala*,¹ and the Magadha-state comprised of the territories of Magadha and Aṅga.² The process develops very rapidly between 550 B. C. and 300 B. C. The ground for this had already been prepared philosophically. The Buddha, though a born republican, was ambitious to found a one-state empire of his religion.³ The Aitareya Brāhmaṇa had preached for an empire extending up to the sea. The Jātakas are full of the ideal of an All-India Empire (Sakala-Jambudīpe-eka-rajjaṁ).