Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c7.380

c7.380

All these later references indicate a further development in the institution of the *samiti*. In the Brāhmaṇic period it was being replaced by the *pariṣad*, a king's council of the learned *paṇḍits*. The word (*samiti*) is not used in the Vedic literature in the sense of "battle".⁷ It always signified a "getting-together," an "assembly", "meeting" or a "council."⁸ As far as we know, in the sense of a "battle" it occurs for the first time in the *Mahābhārata*. Eventually *samiti* came to mean an association or a society and it is in this sense alone that the word is used in modern Indian languages.