Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c6.s2.45

c6.s2.45

Our analysis of the Vedic texts reveals that there were at least four different forms of "government by discussion" in the early Vedic period (c. 1500 to c. 1000 B.C.).² On the other hand, the evidence of the Buddhist and Jaina texts, Pāṇini's *Aṣṭādhyāyī* and Kauṭilya's *Arthaśāstra*, combine to attest to the existence of a number of republican states³ (from c. 600 to c. 480 B.C.).⁴ The classical historians record yet a larger number of republics and aristocracies which Alexander faced in various parts of north-western India, Panjab and Sind during the latter half of the 4th century B.C.,⁵ while the *Mahābhārata*, and certain coins⁶ and inscriptions prove that republics flourished in western India even later. The mention of some republican ethnic groups in the Allahabad Pillar Inscription of Samudra Gupta⁷ appears to show that these republics had somehow managed to retain their system of government even during the reign of the mightiest Gupta conqueror, just as in Greece republicanism and federal government outlived Alexander the Great.⁸