VEDIC POLITY

Tribal Polity in Rig Veda

In Ancient India, there wasn’t a clear distinction between the state and government and the king
wasn’t wholly identified with the state.

At the time of the Aryan invasion agricultural and urban communities existed in India. They
were organized under powerful monarchies.

The early Aryans could not develop stable kingdoms as they were semi nomadic people.
The result was the development of the tribal principalities.

The social structure of the Rig-Veda was based on kinship. The term gotra is used in the
sense of cow-pen or cow enclosure and the people who lived in the same cowshed
belonged to the same gotra.

Vrata (hoard or troop or assemblage) also a kin-based group functioned under a head
called vratapati.

Grama meant a collection of related families (kin-based) that was a basic element of the
social structure. It came to denote a village when its members took to agriculture and
sedentary life.

It also formed the smallest political unit.

Jana was the highest social unit based on the patriarchal kinship. It corresponds with the
tribe whose chief is known as the janapati , janasya gopta or king(raja)

Vis was the sub-division of the jana or tribe whose head was called the visapati. The
Visas were closely knit together and on the battlefields, battalions were often arranged as
per vis from which they have been recruited.

The basic elements of the state like the fixed territory, a regular source of income and the
standing army was absent in the Vedic period.

The people were more attached to the kin rather than to any territory.

The tributes which the victorious king received from the vanquished were obligatory but
not regular.

This is also true of the army which seems to be an impoverished one mobilised out of the
tribesmen, whenever the need arose. But the process that gave rise to the state organs had
already begun in this period.

Tribal assemblies
Vidatha

According to Altekar, the term vidhata “probably indicated a religious or sacrificial gathering,
rituals at which required the highest knowledge.”

From it emerged the sabha, samiti and sena.

It was the earliest village folk assembly attended by men and women, performing all
kinds of functions, economic, military, religious and social.

It made laws for the regulation of tribal affairs.

It answered the need of the primitive society which hardly knew the division of labour or
domination of male over the female.

The keystone of the vidatha system was co-operation.

It does not appear to have taken active part in the administration.

Sabha

Sabha and Samiti are regarded as the twin daughters of the Lord Prajapati.

The Sabha at first was the association of the kinsfolk, but later became also an association
of men bound together either by ties of blood or local contiguity.

It was a central aristocratic gathering associated with the king and can be labelled as the
political council.

It was like the upper House where the priests and aristocrats were represented.

It was a tribal assembly where the members debated over the domestication of cattle,
played dice and offered prayers and sacrifices. In the later Vedic times women also
attended the Sabha but it was discontinued later in the Vedic times.

This assembly came to assume a patriarchal and aristocratic character in the later Vedic
period.

It was composed of the members of high character and integrity, learning and bearing-----
-in other words men of distinction and high social status.

The sabha transacted both political and non-political business. It deliberated over the
pastoral affairs and matters concerning religion. It also functioned as the national
judicature.

The sabha conducted its business by debate and discussions. Free and frank discussions
were held before arriving at unanimous decisions. The decision of the sabha was binding
 on all. The king attended the meeting of the sabha and considered its advice to be of
supreme importance.

The president of the sabha was called sabhapati.

Samiti

It was like a lower house ,a more comprehensive body consisting of all the common
people (visah), the Brahmans and the lower and rich patrons

It was an august assembly of a larger group of people for the discharge of tribal business
and was presided over by the king.

Amongst its most important functions was the election of the king. It could even re- elect
a king who had been banished.

All matters of the state, military and executive affairs were discussed and decided by the
Samiti.

Questions which were non-political in character were also discussed by the samiti .As a
national academy; it tested the knowledge of educated persons.

As a deliberative body, the proceedings of the samiti were conducted by debates and
discussions with a view to achieving agreement.

Emphasis was laid on the concord between the king and the assembly and on the spirit of
the harmony among its members.

The sabha developed as the Privy Council of the King.

Later Vedic period

The tribal state of the Vedic period tended to assume territorial character in the later
Vedic period. This was indeed the result of settled life.

The community took to the agricultural life and this facilitated the regular payment of
tribute to the chief or to the raja.

The priests invented the rituals to secure the reluctant tribal peasantry’s permanent
subordination to the raja.

The improvement in the material situation ,particularly in the middle Ganga plains ,in the
post-Vedic period brought to the fore the need for the protection of the private property
and patriarchal family, which in turn occasioned the rise of the state
 Around 500 B.C. there was increased availability of the surplus and the machinery for its
mobilization had come into being. These developments completed the process of state
formation.

MAURYAN STATE

The formation of state was completed around 500 B.C. The development of the full- fledged
state system with all four essential factors of the state namely a territory, a population, unity and
organisation in a completely evolved form was a distinguishing feature of the mauryan age.

According to the Arthashastra of Kautilya, the State consisted of the seven limbs (saptanga)------
---
The king(swamin); The minister(amatya); The territory or the country(janapada or rashtra); The
fort(durga); The treasury(kosha); The army(bala); The ally(mitra)

The idea behind the saptanga theory was that without a proper organisation, a state of
lawlessness (matsyanyaya) would set in and that hinders the development of state’s personality.

In the Mauryan polity the king was considered all-powerful though the Arthashastra lay
emphasis on the conception of the king as the servant of the state which was one of the
basic principles of ancient Indian political thought.

The exaltation of the royal authority is a striking feature of the nature of the Mauryan
state the Arthashastra grants the power of legislation by edicts and decrees, a power
which was never enjoyed by the king before in India

The Mauryan state had developed a highly organized bureaucratic administration capable
of maintaining the stability of the empire spanning the length and breadth of the land and
controlling all spheres of life.

In one passage the Arthashastra speaks of 18 tirths(departments) and in addition makes

They were concerned with the economic, military and social functions.

Of the chief departments charged with the economic functions are those of commerce,
forest produce, weaving agriculture, pasturelands, mines, oceanic mines, metals, mints,
salts, wastelands, tolls and exercise.

The chief military departments are those of armoury, horses, elephants, chariots and
infantry.
The administration showed equal concern for the health of the society becomes evident
from the appointment of superintendents to control the prostitutes, gambling dens, liquor
shops etc.

The police was the most important civic administration department. It prevented the
commission of crimes and brought the transgressors of law to justice. If they failed to
trace the thief, they had to make good the loss.

In order to suppress crime the Arthashastra advises the imposition of stringent curfew
from about two and a half hours after the sunset to the same time before the dawn.

There was an efficiently organised espionage system and the spies in disguise helped the
police in the detection of crimes

Kautilya attaches great importance to the selection of the superintendents .he lays down
qualifications and prescribes rules for their promotion.

To keep this highly organised bureaucracy from the clutches of nepotism and monopoly,
Kautilya suggested that each department be officered by several temporary heads.

He also talks about the transfer of the government servants.

The text says that no superintendent shall be allowed to take any decision without
bringing it to the knowledge of their masters except remedial measures against imminent
dangers.

The book gave detailed information about the pays of different dignitaries and officers.

The higher functionaries such as the priest, the teacher, the minister, the commander of
the armed forces, the heir-apparent prince, the mother of the king, and the queen received
48000 panas monthly. (punchmarked coins)

The lower officials like the palace workers attendants and the body-guards received only
60 panas.

A messenger of the middle quality was given only 10 or 20 panas.

The ratio between the highest and the lowest servant of the government therefore showed
an enormous difference between the two.

The navy, transport and the commissariat are the mauryan innovations.

There were elaborate rules and regulations for the training and drilling of soldiers and
that special attention was paid by the military authorities to the sick and wounded in the
army and for this the army was supplemented by a contingent of doctors and nurses.
 Munitions of war were made in state arsenals and there was a state control over the
artisans who produced weapons

Dhamasthaya were the civil courts and Kantakshodhan were the criminal courts which
differed from the civil courts by their more summary produce and speedy disposal.

Officers charged with the murder, thefts, dacoity and the sexual offences appeared before
the latter.

The officers like pradesta performed both police and revenue functions. Similarly,
officials like samaharta, the sthanika and the gopa performed both the fiscal and police
and magisterial functions.

City administration

The increasingly complex social economic activities of the state coupled with the need of
the urban settlements necessitated the creation of machinery for the administration of the
towns, which was perhaps the innovation of the Mauryas.

Megasthenes gave a detailed description of the municipal administration of Pataliputra.

He says that the city of Pataliputra was administered by the committee of thirty members
divided into six committees of five members each.

The Kautilya does not envisage the involvement of local elements in the city
administration.

The most important element there was Nagarika, the governor of the city.

His responsibilities were that of the revenue collection, preservation of law and order and
the supervision of the sanitation arrangements.

The nagarika was assisted in the administration by two officials called sthanika and gopa.

The gopa was charged with the responsibilities of the collection of the revenue and the
supervision of the forty households each.

The sthanika attended to the accounts of the four quarters of the town.

A new set of officials called antamahamatras was appointed so as to set the border people
right.

Mauryas possess the world’s most ancient theory on public finance.

Kautilya made a distinction between the war economy and the peace economy and said
that the stability of the administration depends on the treasury.
 He demonstrates great ingenuity in devising and justifying means for augmenting the
wealth of the state.

He does not neglect any source because of its smallness and leaves nothing out of
taxation.

He brought rural and urban areas in addition to artisans, and traders under the tax net.

The manual labourers had to work in the state farms for one day.

The sannidhata (custodian of the treasury) and the samaharta (the chief revenue collector)
were the important officials of the finance department.

Kautilya advocated the gradual system of taxation.

The traders taxed not on their gross earning but on the net profits and the articles were
taxed only once.

This large system of taxation was for maintaining the army and the bureaucracy.

Conclusion

Mauryan system of administration was highly centralized and they recognized the need
for uniformity in administrative institutions.

There seems to be a complete picture of the administration of provinces (janapadas) and

Ashoka showed traces of decentralization when he granted large executive and judicial
powers to the rajukas.