Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c16.22

c16.22

We have brought to a close our study of the Vedic aristocracies and the Buddhist republics. In both constitutions we may notice the application of the same principles; both believed in the "unwisdom of the multitude,"¹ in the justice and necessity of limiting privileges to comparatively few, and in letting them rule the rest of the population as subjects excluded from the rights of citizenship. Both had the same scheme of government in which the mean was struck between the single dominion of a tyrant and the sovereignty of a large assembly, by the creation of a council, where a few able men, acting in concert, were to direct the policy and administer the state.