Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c7.508

c7.508

The *vidatha* cannot be compared with the Roman *comitia* because the latter was a political institution like the *samiti* of the Vedic aristocracies. The *comitia centuriata* was the assembly of the *curiae* or wards at Rome.¹ Such wards were not only unknown to Vedic Indians, but also even to the later republics of the Buddhist period. The *comitia* also dealt with "election to certain priesthoods, and other religious matters",² whereas there is no evidence to show that the *vidatha* did so on the tribal level. In fact, the latter cannot be compared with the former in any respect. Moreover, Sharma seems to be contradicting himself in comparing the *vidatha* with each of the thirty Roman *curiae*. In that case he admits that the *vidatha* was a local body and even then the analogy cannot go further because the *curia* was a political constituency, which the *vidatha* was not. Hence the comparison is unsuitable.