The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c10.s1.t4.1

c10.s1.t4.1

There is a further distinction to be noted by students of constitutional history. In spite of the manifold privileges of self-determination, the rural communes of India since Maurya times must be sharply distinguished in political status from the "direct democracies" or patriarchal commonwealths of Vedic India and the smaller village or town republics of later times. For the *panchâyats* and the like associations were no longer the full-fledged "sovereign" bodies of old, but institutions of "local government" enjoying rights and immunities only within the bounds of royal or imperial will, viz. according to the grants of charters.