Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c7.131

c7.131

We believe that in the Vedic political communities such a distinction of rank existed and only the leading families, which might have been fairly numerous, actually took part in the choice of the king. These people were invaders like their Greek counterparts. In some Greek states all members of the conquering race had equal rights. In India, however, we find an elite that exercised the governmental authority without a king and ruled through the important leaders of the *sabhā*, thus forming a different type of government.³ (We do not know if the term *viś* can be interpreted as technically applying to the heads of families of a political community who were vested with the full rights of citizenship and were entitled to participate in the choice of the king. It is possible that not all such qualified citizens actually attended the choice-meeting or consent-ceremony.) The condition of society reflected in Homer's *Iliad* seems to be similar to that of such states.