Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c7.120

c7.120

Thus, it was the *viś* which chose the king. But *viś* in the early Vedic texts literally means a “community,” “tribe,” “race,” or in the plural “subjects,” “people,”³ and as such the evidence must mean that the people of a tribe chose their king. However, it does not seem feasible that the entire adult population participated in this choice. In a patriarchal society the father, as the head of the family, was the qualified member of the community who could take part in the deliberations of the public business. One Ṛg Vedic hymn seems to support this view: “Our eldest brother or kinsman, the leader, speaks out.”⁴ And the following verse of the same hymn alludes to the choice of the god Agni as a priest for the sacrifice.⁵ The context might suggest that the eldest brother (*jyeṣṭha bhrātā*), the leader (*prathamo*), was the head of the family, probably in a case where the father is not alive. Moreover, the family headship held by the eldest man of the family was probably such a common feature of Vedic society that the composers of the hymns did not think it worth mentioning, though it appears to have been indirectly alluded to in a number of hymns where mention is made of the eldest (*jyeṣṭha* and *prathama*).⁶