Aspects of political ideas and institutions in ancient India / Ram Sharan Sharma

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Historiography of Ancient Indian Polity up to 1930 -- Sources and Method -- The Saptanga Theory of the State -- Theories of Property, Family and Varna Regarding the Origin of the State -- The Contract Theory of the Origin of the State: An Historical Survey -- Theory of "Oriental Despotism": A Socio-Economic Critique -- Vidatha: The Earliest Folk-Assembly of the Indo- Aryans -- Sabha and Samiti -- The Vedic Gana and the Origin of the Post-Vedic Republics -- The Early Parisad -- Ratnahamisi Ceremony -- Tribal and Primitive Aspects of the Later Vedic Polity -- Kin-conflicts and Rise of Hierarchy in Later Vedic Times -- From Gopati to Bhupati; Changing Position of the King -- Taxation and State Formation in Northern India in Pre-Maurya Times -- Varna in Relation to Law and Politics (c.B.C. 600 A.D.500) -- Religion and Politics in the Arthasastra of Kautilya -- The Satavahana Polity -- The Kusana Polity -- Kusana Elements in the Gupta Polity -- The Gupta Polity -- Stages in Ancient Indian Polity: Vedic and Post-vedic -- Stages in Ancient Indian Polity: Maurya and Later --