The sabhā and the samiti

Each janapada had an assembly or council, called a sabhā or samiti, where the clan discussed its matters.

These are very old words: they first appear in the Vedas, India's most ancient texts. So the habit of deciding things together is older than the janapadas.

We may assume most members were the clan's elders. (Notice the careful may assume: the book shows where evidence ends and guessing begins.)

The rājā was not supposed to rule just as he pleased. A good ruler took advice from the assembly, and from his ministers and officials.

According to some texts, an assembly could even remove a bad ruler.

But the book adds a caution: these mentions don't prove it was a fixed law everywhere, because our information from such distant times is incomplete. That's how a historian thinks: a text tells us an idea existed, not that it always happened.