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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Give an account of the republics in the preMaurya period. Discuss the factors which contributed to their decline.

  • UPSC 1992
  • Period of Mahajanapadas

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Among the sixteen mahajanapadas that Buddhist tradition places on the map of sixth-century BC India, not all were kingdoms. Alongside the monarchies (rajyas) of the Ganga valley stood a cluster of non-monarchical polities called ganas or sanghas, most visibly the Vajji and Malla mahajanapadas. Long mistranslated as "republics," these were in fact clan oligarchies whose…

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What the full answer covers

  • Evidence for the Ganas/Sanghas
  • Location and Composition
  • Oligarchy, Not Democracy
  • Roots in Reaction to Later Vedic Kingship
  • Factors Behind Their Decline
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