The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c5.2

c5.2

The political institutions of the Hindus¹ are, in their origin, as old as those of the Greeks but it is impossible to trace their development or visualise their working with the same clarity and fulness. In spite of the rapid strides of Oriental research during the last hundred years, there is no political history of India, in the strict sense of the term, prior to the sixth century B.C., while the gaps in the subsequent annals are numerous and sometimes cover centuries. The dates of many kings are doubtful, while nothing can exceed the difficulty of fixing the chronological limits of most of the Hindu poets, philosophers, grammarians and legal and political writers. Nor is the raw material available for the study of political institutions so abundant in itself as the size of the country and the duration of its history would lead one to expect. Historical compositions are few. Works on law or polity are certainly numerous but, for the most part, they are theoretical and do not readily yield any information on the practical working of institutions. General literature, religious or secular, gives something only after the most searching examination. The foreign accounts of India by classical, Chinese and Arab writers are more valuable but they are few and far between and some of them have not come down to us at first hand. The inscriptions and coins which have been discovered and deciphered by a host of scholars in ever-increasing numbers of late constitute the real basis of the study of the structure and working of Hindu political institutions but the interpretation of administrative and fiscal terms therein bristles with difficulties.