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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Give an account of gana-sanghas (non-monarchical state systems)? Why did they decline?

  • UPSC 2018
  • Period of Mahajanapadas

Among the sixteen mahajanapadas that Buddhist and Jaina texts place on the sixth-century BC political map, two distinct constitutional forms coexisted — rajya (monarchy) and gana or sangha, terms used interchangeably in Panini's Ashtadhyayi and the Majjhima Nikaya for non-monarchical polities. The common English rendering "republic" is misleading: these were not democracies in any modern…

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What the full answer covers

  • The Political Anatomy of the Gana-Sanghas
  • Oligarchy, Not Democracy
  • Why the Gana-Sanghas Declined

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