Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c7.178

c7.178

This conclusion is further confirmed by a close examination of the Atharvan hymns. In the *Atharva Veda*, there are altogether seventeen mentions of the *sabhā*,⁶ of which in at least five hymns the *samiti* does not figure at all,⁷ whereas in two hymns the *sabhā*⁸ and the *samiti*⁹ both occur, but in different verses. We believe that at least the five hymns in which *sabhā* alone appears refer to the *sabhā*-ruled governments of the Vedic period. Those passages in which *sabhā* and *samiti* both occur we interpret as referring to another variety of non-monarchical political community, where both the *sabhā*, the council, and the *samiti*, the assembly, ruled. This type of constitution we shall consider in the next section.