Most Ancient Aryan Society

Author(s): Ram Chandra Jain
Publisher: Institute of Bharatalogical Research Sriganganagar Rajasthan

Page 161

( 134 ) in connection withs. The word Gaņa refers to a group of persons, constantly moving, joined together by compulsion of environments. Gaņa is an artificial aggregation of human beings founded on counting of numbers of those who so joined. Gaņa, thus, presumes the existence of certain other entities which join together to form a particular Gaņa. Rgveda does not specifically mention them but some pointer may be gleaned from Sāyaṇa's commentary. Though Sāyaṇa did not truly understand the social significance of this basic institution which had long gone absolute still some lingering tradition might have survived in his age. He maintains that every Gana was constituted of Seven Samudāyas“. Samudāya has the meaning of 'coming together, junction, combination, collection, aggregation.6 Samudāya is an artificial aggregation of human beings for common purposes. Seven such different aggregations went to constitute a Gaņa. These different Samudāyas carried on different political and social activities in their own particular way. They might have been differently calculated for common purposes within the Gaņa for its efficient working. The fruits of economic and social activities of the federating Samudāyas might have developed a technique of planning to separately calculate them and assign the value of the labours of each one of the Samudāya. As these Samudāyas bad aggregated together for common material growth and prosperity ; this technique was evolved to estimate the qualitative additions to their means of prosperity and happiness. The different Samudāyas considered it profitable to carry their activities in common. The common institution, thus, originates from the mutual contract of different Samudāyas for common pursuits. It was called Gaņa.
Before the word Gaņa began to be applied to the artificial aggregation of the human beings; it was understood