Most Ancient Aryan Society

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

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Hindu Polity
3. JAYASWAL ON GANA The celebrated eminent scholar of the East, K. P. Jayaswal, has dealt with this Gaņa problem in his Monu
... mental work 'Hindu Polity'. He has tried
to establish his political thesis that Monarchy was the earliest form of Government in Ķgvedic and later Vedic times. The republican form of Government developed later. He considers the Gaņa as the ancient term for Hindu republic.
Jayaswal was initially inspired by the use of the word "Gaņa-rāyāņi' in Achārāņga Sūtra, a Jain Anga.' It means
- Gaņa-rājās. Only two republics of note Gana-rāyāpi
* existed Circa 600 B.C.; one of the Vajjis and the other of the Sākyas, a part of Košala. The Lichchhavis, a part of the Vajji Confederacy, had 7707 Gaņarājās, each Gaņa-rājā presiding over a small administrative unit. They formed a confederacy with nine Malla and Eighteen Gaņa-rājās of Kāší-Košala. We have earlier discussed both the terms, the Gaņa and the Rājan, and they are contradictory to each other. How their amalgamation took place is an interesting chapter of history,
When the Aryan Devas and the Bhāratīyan (Imam was the Western-most part of Bhārata in that age) Asuras were fighting the Asuras defeated the Devas. The Devas said, 'It is on account of our having no Rājā that the Asuras defeat us. Let us make a 'Rājā'. This state refers to the wars which the invading Iranāryans and Brahmāryans had waged with the local inhabitants of the land. Jayaswal concedes that this historical reference is to the tribal stage of the Aryans in Bhārata. Jayaswal has failed to appreciate