Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c16.9

c16.9

'Did free institutions fail because there was too much monarchy, or was there too much monarchy because free institutions had failed?' This is the question asked by Larsen in connection with the fall of the Greek and Roman republics. In his opinion, Roman history to a considerable extent favours the latter suggestion.¹ However, our study of Indian history does not provide a straight answer to this question. For about 500 years of the early Vedic period republican institutions and monarchies flourished side by side. There is no evidence to show that monarchies defeated the aristocracies in that period, though there is ground for the view that the nobles-*samiti* aristocracy would tend to give rise to monarchy because an individual noble could acquire highest power and prestige within the college of rulers.