Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c7.375

c7.375

Apart from the above mentions of the *samiti*, the *Chāndogya Upaniṣad* refers to Śvetaketu Āruṇeya's going to the *samiti* of the Pāñcālas,³ but the *Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad*, recording the same event, replaces the word with *pariṣad*.⁴ Here the *samiti* and the *pariṣad* are equated and refer to the king's council rather than to an "assembly." The *samiti* during the later Vedic period acquired this connotation. *Samiti* occurs at another place in the latter text in the sense of an academy: "He who wishes that a son should be born to him, who would be a reputed scholar [*paṇḍito vigītaḥ*] frequenting the assemblies [*samitiṁgamaḥ*] and speaking delightful words, should study all the Vedas, etc. . . .,"⁵ while in the *Mahābhārata* the word occurs in the sense of a "battle" (*samitiṁjayaḥ*), a designation applied to Arjuna, Bhīṣma, Karṇa, Kṛpa, etc.⁶