History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.222.3

v4.c62.222.3

We shall have to understand the word 'janam' after it, since the word 'jana' is often employed after 'paurajānapada' e. g. in the 8th Rock Edict at Girnar 'janapadasa ca janasa dasanaṁ' C. I. I. vol. I. pp. 14-15, in Rudradāman's inscription in E. I. vol. VIII p. 44 'apīḍayitvā paura-jānapadaṁ janaṁ' and 'paurajānapada-janānugrahārthaṁ' at p. 45 or in the Rāmāyaṇa II. 2. 51, II. 111. 19 'paurajānapadam janam'). Lastly if the paurajānapada organization had (as said by Jayaswal in the quotation cited above) the power to depose kings and pass even hostile statutes, is it not a contradiction in terms to say that, instead of the Parliament or Diet deciding to remit certain taxes, it was the king who remitted taxes and bestowed favours (or privileges) of lakhs of rupees on the supposedly all powerful Paura-Jānapada assembly? In all passages that he quotes from the Rāmāyaṇa and other classical sanskrit works the ordinary meaning of *paura* (residents of the capital) and *jānapada* (inhabitants of the country other than the capital) is quite enough and it is impossible to hold that any elective body is meant. In most passages the plural 'paurajānapadān' is used. If 'Paura-jānapada' stands for one elective body or two bodies, no explanation is offered why the plural should generally be used and not the dual. Kauṭilya (I. 19) states that the king should in the 2nd part of the day (divided into eight parts) look into the causes of the paura-jānapadas.