[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C.](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1968) › c7.552 # Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c7.552 Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c7.552 - **Language:** English ### [c7.552](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1968.c7.552) In order to show the \*vidatha\*’s tribal character, Sharma depends entirely on its association with \*gaṇa\*,² the term which he mistakenly interprets to be a “technical word for the republic” in the \*Ṛg Veda\*. His evidence of the tribal character of the \*vidatha\* and the \*gaṇa\* comes from a later source which gives 63 as the number of the \*gaṇa\* of Maruts.³ This is the largest number of the Maruts’ \*gaṇa\* we have from the Vedic sources. Thus, the dissociation of the \*vidatha\* from the most common terms for the tribe, i.e. \*jana\* and \*viś\*, and the largest number of members of a \*gaṇa\* being too small even to form a settlement, forbid all attempts at making the \*vidatha\* a tribal folk-assembly of the Vedic people. - [Previous: c7.551](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1968.c7.551) - [Next: c7.553](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1968.c7.553) - [Up: c7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1968.c7) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1968.c7.552](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sharma-1968.c7.552) · Pramāṇa