Political Forms Of Ancient India Essays - Civilizations,

Political forms of Ancient India Political forms of Ancient India The Indian sub-continent was the home of one of the earliest civilizations of man. In the history of ancient India we see many forms of society ranging from urban civilization of Indus Valley to the Classical Age of Gupta Dynasty. During this period we see a hierarchy of centralized and decentralized government. Some of which were highly organized in their political structure and government while others were merely weakened by internal problems and division of power. Indus Valley Civilization was one of the world's oldest and greatest civilizations which took shape around 3000 BC to 2500 BC in the valley of the Indus River. Remains of more than 100 cities, towns, and villages of the Indus Valley civilization have now been found from north of the Hindu Kush down the entire length of the Indus and beyond into peninsular India. Harappa and Mohenjo Daro are the two urban centers of Indus Valley civilization and the excavation of these sites reveal standardization and ordered society and ten centuries of relatively stable conditions. The city was amazingly well planned with broad main streets and good secondary streets. The houses of these cities were solidly built of bricks and many were multi-storied and equipped with bathrooms and lavatories. The high quality of the pottery, along with hoards of gold and silver found at Indus Valley sites, suggest great accumulation of wealth. Each city was laid out on a grid plan with a high citadel and a lower city of domestic dwellings. Urban planning is evident in the neat arrangement of major buildings contained in the citadel, including the placement of a large granary and water tank or bath at right angles to one another. The lower city, which was tightly packed with residential units, was also constructed on a grid pattern consisting of a number of blocks separated by major cross streets. The cities had an elaborate public drainage system. Sanitation was provided through an extensive system of covered drains running through the length of the main streets and connected by chutes with most residences. All these archeological evidences uncovered a strong centralized authority. The urban civilization of Indus Valley suggests a complex planning that undertook the region and the people lived up to the standard of the time. The Indus civilization appears to have declined rapidly in the early 2d Millennium BC. Archeological remains further indicate intermittent and devastating floods around this time and possible invasions by the Aryans, whose epics refer to their conquest of walled cities. The Aryans are said to have entered India through the fabled Khyber pass, around 1500 BC and gave rise to another civilization in Indian history, the Vedic period. The Aryans are believed to have developed the Sanskrit language and made significant inroads into the religion of the time. All these factors were to play a fundamental role in the shaping of Indian culture. The Aryans did not have a script but they developed a rich tradition. They composed the hymns of the four vedas, the great philosophic poems that are at the heart of Hindu thought. The Aryans were divided into tribes, which had settled in different regions of northwestern India. Tribal chiefmanship gradually became hereditary, though the chief usually operated with the help of advice from either a committee or the entire tribe. Tribal chiefs bearing the title Raja or king were at first little more than war-lords, and their principal duty was protection of their tribes. The power of the king positioned with the higher authority of the priests. Vedic kingship was the natural outcome of the conditions surrounding the Aryans. A king was the leader of the people in the war of aggression and defense. He is called the "Protector of the people". A study of the Rigveda shows that the king was no longer merely a leader of a primitive tribe, but occupied a position of per-eminence among the people. The protection of the people was the sacred duty of the king. In return, he expected and received loyal obedience from his subjects in the sense of a tribute to the king. With work specialization, the internal division of the Aryan society developed along caste lines. Their social framework was composed mainly of the following groups: the Brahmana (priests), Kshatriya (warriors), Vaishya (agriculturists) and Shudra (workers). The Brahmanas were referred to as the receivers of gift. The Vaishyas had to pay tribute for the lands that they got from the Kshatriya nobles. It was, in the beginning, a division of occupations; as such it was open and flexible. Much later, caste status and the corresponding occupation came