[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928) › c7.41 # The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c7.41 The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c7.41 - **Language:** English ### [c7.41](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c7.41) The monarchy was the normal type of government. There are, indeed, a few passages which at first sight point to the existence of oligarchy. A hymn in the tenth Maṇḍala of the Ṛigveda remarks, “As the Rājans assemble together in the Samiti, the plants gather together in him who is called physician . . . . . .”¹ We read in the Atharvaveda, “They that ruled, a thousand, and were ten hundreds, those Vaitāhavyas, having devoured the cow of a Brāhmaṇa, perished.”² The most probable explanation of these passages is that nobles are meant. In some other passages in the tenth Maṇḍala of the Ṛigveda,³ the Atharvaveda⁴ the Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā,⁵ and the Taittirīya Saṃhitā,⁶ the term Rājan seems to be used only in the sense of a noble. It shows that round the king there stood a nobility which claimed the same social status as the royal family. - [Previous: c7.40](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c7.40) - [Next: c7.42](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c7.42) - [Up: c7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c7) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c7.41](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1928.c7.41) · Pramāṇa