The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c5.11

c5.11

India is split into two halves by the Vindhyas and Satpuras. Nothing like the Himâlayas, these chains of hills and mountains allow free intercourse between the North on the one hand and the Deccan, as the table-land is called, and the country south of the Kriṣṇâ on the other hand. But they have served to make the two regions different in race, language and partly in culture. Within the peninsula again, the Deccan plateau is in geographical configuration different from the extreme south and differs from it essentially in race, language and character. Politically, India is divided into three great entities, each with a system of its own. More energetic and persistent than the quest for the suzerainty of the whole country, has been the quest for supremacy over the North, over the Deccan and over the South as a whole. In particular, the region known as Tâmilakam, extending from the south of Madras to Cape Comorin, has a strong individuality of its own. In spite of centuries of Âryan contact and influence, its civilisation has run an independent career. The admixture of Âryan blood is small; the languages contain few Sanskrit words; the political institutions show many important peculiarities. In the extreme south-west of India the Malâbâr, sheltered by the Western range and the sea from outside influences, is still a museum of sociological curiosities. There is, however, no evidence to prove that its institutions represent a survival of those which once prevailed over the whole of the south or beyond. Further up, the sea and the Western Ghāts, running for hundreds of miles along the coast, enclose a narrow strip of land, called the Koṅkan,¹ which reared a hardy, sturdy race and enabled it to preserve and develop its peculiar institutions. Beyond the bounds of India proper lies the island of Siṃhala or Ceylon which, for centuries, shared in the history of Southern India and, to a far lesser extent, in that of India as a whole. Politically, however, it is an entity by itself. It is desirable that in any administrative survey the North, the Deccan, the South and Ceylon should be primarily treated by themselves. Since, however, they frequently influenced one another and since proximity and similarity of certain conditions made their institutions alike in some respects, the administrative history of any of the four areas can be enriched by comparison with that of the others and by illustration from them.