Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c7.31

c7.31

There is yet another possibility, more preferable, that these four different forms of government marked four successive stages of constitutional development in the non-monarchical communities. In the beginning the king was chosen by the heads of those families which formed the *viś*, showing the earliest stage in the career of the non-hereditary tribes. After some time, during the Ṛg Vedic period, the practice of choosing the king was discontinued and leading men of the political community composed the *sabhā* which constituted the government. The third stage of political development was marked when the body composed of the heads of families of the *viś* crystallized into the *samiti* and the *sabhā*, and both these latter bodies ruled the tribe. During the fourth stage the *sabhā* appears to have changed its character. Instead of the members of the *sabhā* being called *sabhyas*, councillors, they began to be called *rājās*, nobles, while the *samiti* continued the same, thus accounting for the references to these two institutions in the same context. After this, one strong and powerful man from among the nobles rose higher in position than the rest and became the guardian of the community. His fellow nobles no longer shared as much power as they had in the earlier stage when the chief was merely *primus inter pares*. The leader then became the most powerful chief, unchallenged to the extent of appointing his own son to succeed him in office. The *samiti* also changed its role and became a king's council, renamed the *pariṣad*. Thus the "republican" communities more and more approximated to the monarchical ones already existing beside them and the process was virtually completed in the later Vedic period.