The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c13.76

c13.76

Records of the third and fourth centuries A.D. support the hypothesis of federal-feudalism as the principle of political organisation in ancient India. Sylvain Lévi points out that the Chinese account of an embassy to Siam in the third century A.D. describes Muruṇḍarāja of India as a powerful monarch whose suzerainty was acknowledged by distant kingdoms. His capital might have been somewhere in Eastern India. The Allâhâbâd Inscription of Samudragupta mentions Daivaputra, Ṣâhi, and Ṣâhânuṣâhi as the titles of the chiefs and kings subjugated by the Gupta king. Ṣâhânuṣâhi is the Iranian title of suzerain and corresponds to the Hindu Mahârâjâdhirâja of the Gupta epoch as Ṣâhi corresponds to Râja or Mahârâja.