Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c16.12

c16.12

There is yet another interpretation, which we prefer, that not all the republicans submitted to the change, but that some of them moved eastwards in order to preserve their political system. This manifests itself in the republican institutions that flourished during the Buddhist period. At the same time, it is not unreasonable to suggest that some of the tribes of the old school, though they submitted to the monarchies of the Brāhmaṇic period, reverted back to their original constitutions as soon as the monarchies in power wavered in the post-Vedic period. This would explain the background of the republican peoples who are mentioned by the classical historians. Alexander's historians mention more republican than monarchical governments in the northwest during the 4th century B.C. Later inscriptional and numismatic evidence further attests to the existence of republican communities at least up to 385 A.D. (the date of the Allahabad Pillar Inscription). From this comes the evident fact that both republics and monarchies existed simultaneously.