ABSTRACT
The Indic treasury of literature from the Vedic tradition is enhanced and enriched in the post-Vedic age when literature from the Buddhist and Jain systems of thought begins to make its mark. The concept of monarchy became more pronounced and, besides the clan states, the post-Vedic age witnessed the rise of kingdoms, great and small, ruled by monarchs. The monarchical tradition lasted in India for nearly 2,700 years, until the end of British rule in 1947 and the adoption of a republican constitution in 1950. Taxila was an ancient city where Vedic culture had flourished for centuries, and to a certain extent Ambhis collaboration made sense. Nevertheless, the two most well-known Indians of the first half of the twentieth century, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, based their philosophy of life on the spiritual principles of Jainism and Buddhism, the two heterodox systems of thought which challenged the Vedic Brahmanic orthodoxies.
