What are the Monarchy and Republic?

In ancient times, there were a total of sixteen states in India, which were mainly of two types:

1. Monarchy
2. Republic

Monarchy

In the monarchy, there was only one king's rule, in which taking care of the commoner's interests and how to deal with the enemies inside and outside and apart from this, the king used to decide on all other problems, small or big in the state.

In the monarchy, the general public didn't have the right to choose the king; the king himself was chosen by the then king as the next king from one of his family members. similarly, the king was elected from generation to generation of the same family. it used to be, in ancient times, such a state was called a monarchy state.

In ancient times, one such state whose name was Magadha (now Bihar), which was located in the north-east part of India at that time, which after fighting for about two hundred years, became a Mahajanapada (state) from a simple Janapada (district). the main reason for this was to make this district self-sufficient by utilizing the total resources available in the district.

After Magadha became a state from a simple district, the capital of this state was kept at Rajgrah (now Rajgir), and after some years, the capital was changed into Pataliputra (now Patna), which is till now.

There were two mighty rulers in Magadha at that time, one Bimbisara and the other Ajatashatru; Magadha became so powerful and became a kingdom that the army of Macedonian at that time, king Alexander also came out to conquer the world to attack Magadha kingdom.

Because Magadha had at that time, along with the army of foot and chariots, educated the wild animal elephant found in his forests and recruited it in his army, a huge army of elephants near Magadha.

Republic

In the republic, every commoner or person ruled, and every commoner had equal right to choose the king or ruler, in which any commoner could become the king; this work was done by holding elections from time to time.

In which every commoner used to choose the king according to their own choice and every elected king used to decide on any problems after knowing the opinion of the common people, in this way common people used to rule in the state, in ancient times, such states was called a republic state.

In ancient times, there was such a state whose name was Vajji, whose capital was Vaishali, which was located in the north-east part of India at that time, in this state was ruled by every commoner, where every commoner was elected through elections, opportunity to become king was given.

Whether the problem on the state came from inside the state or from outside, the common people used to decide on all the problems together. a meeting was called to decide on any problem or crisis, in which the views of each commoner were heard, understood, and analyzed through debate and what, how, when, and where to be decided in this meeting.

The main reason for this was that the state of Vajji was a self-sufficient republic, where there was a lot of unity among every common people; here, each common people respected each other, their culture, their elders, women, and sages.

History

At the same time, there was the kingdom of Magadha, in this state there were two mighty rulers, one Bimbisara and the other Ajatashatru, Magadha was the neighboring state of Vajji state, which was located in the south-west part of Vajji state, powerful ruler Ajatashatru wanted to attack Vajji state and win and merge in his Magadha.

But Vajji couldn't win this state due to the state's resolve of unity and integrity, and many powerful rulers wanted to conquer this state but couldn't win. even after that, for 1534 years, the state of Vajji continued as a republic. after this, the gupta rulers invaded and conquered this state and annexed it.