Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c9.6

c9.6

§ 7. The functions of the Samiti may be gathered from different references. We have already noticed the most important business of the Samiti, to wit, electing the *Rājan*.³ It could also re-elect a king who had been banished.⁴ They were thus a sovereign body from the constitutional point of view. In the Atharva-Veda, VI. 64, which is a prayer-hymn for union and concord, and also in the Ṛig Veda, (X 191. 3), we have a prayer for a ‘common Samiti’ and ‘common policy of State’ (समानो मन्त्रः समितिः समानी), a ‘common aim and a common mind’ (समानं व्रत॑ सह॒ चित्तमे॑षाम् ).¹ This indicates that matters of state (*‘mantra’*) were discussed in the Samiti.