POUTY IN RIGVEDIC AGE

POUTY IN RIGVEDIC AGE

The tribes were ruled by chiefs who bore the title rajan. The rajan was not an absolute monarch, for the government of the tribe was in part the responsibility of the tribal councils like sabha,samiti, gana and vidatha. Even women attended the sabha and the vidatha. The rajan's post was generally hereditary, but we have mention of election of the king by the tribal assembly (samiti). He protected his tribe and its cattle; fought its wars; and offered prayers to gods on its behalf.
The king was assisted by a few functionaries of which purohita was the most important.

The purohita, by his sacrifices ensured the prosperity of the tribe in peace and its victory in war. Often he appears as a tribal medicine­man, performing magical ceremonies and muttering spells for victory both before and during battle. The next impor­tant functionary seems to have been the senani (General) who was responsible under the king for minor campaigns and cattle raids against neighbouring tribes. There was no regular or standing army; in times of war the king mustered
. a militia whose military functions were performed by different tribal groups like vrata, gana, grama, sardha.

The Aryans looked on the king primarily as a leader in war, responsible for the defence of the tribe. He was in no sense divine at this early period, and had no religious functions, except to order sacrifices for the good of the tribe and to support the priests who performed them. The priest­king of some other early cultures had no counterpart here. There was no regular revenue system and the king was maintained by the voluntary tribute (bali) of his subjects and the booty won in battle. There is no reference to the judicial functions of the king. There were cases of theft and burglary, especially theft of cows. Spies were employed to check them.

The officer who enjoyed authority o~er the pasture ground was called vrajapati. He led the heads of the families (kulapas), or the heads of the fighting hordes (gramanis), to battle. In the beginning, the gramaniJvas just the head of a small tribal fighting unit, but when the unit settled, the gramani became the head of th~ village, and later became identified with the vrajapati.

Several chieftains are mentioned in the Rigveda by name, but only one king is recorded as performing any deed of historical importance. He is Sudas, king of the Bharatas, the tribe that dwelled on the upper reaches of the river, Sarasvati. Three hymns or poems of the Rigveda describe the great 'Battle of the Ten Kings' at which Sudas defeated a coalition of ten tribes-five Aryan tribes and five non­Aryan tribes-of Punjab and the North-West, on the banks of the River Parushni, the modern Ravi. The most powerful of these ten tribes was that of the Purus, who dwelt on the lower Sarasvati and were the Bharatas' western neighbours; their king, Purukutsa, was apparently killed in the battle. In the succeeding age, we hear no more of either the Bharatas or the Purus, but a new tribe, that of the Kurus, who controlled the old land of the Bharatas and northern Ganga-Yamuna Doab.

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