In the early Vedic texts rajas are shown as having to consult a council of all male members of a tribe or aristocratic tribal councils called sabhas or samitis. Some tribes had no kingly figures and only councils--these were aristocratic tribal republics, a kind of cheifly organization, or gana-sanghas. In the early Vedic age, as I mentioned earlier, presiding rajas were elected. A new type of raja appears, however, in the late Vedic period, after the transition to settled agriculture and the more complex society which developed. This raja became more of a king, one who emerged from a power struggle among the nobility and then was ritually invested by brahmin priests. A political system in which there were a number of little kings developed into a system whereby there were fewer kings and these had more authority. Still, these more powerful figures did not have well-developed royal administrations. Instead, more and more magnificent royal sacrifices were performed--the most famous being the rajasuya, which was initially repeated every year, and the asvamedha, the horse sacrifice. In the later the king's horse was allowed to roam for a year and then the king claimed the land the horse had transversed. The major sacrificial rituals were occasions for the consumption of wealth, extending over many months with lavish libations of milk and clarified butter, ghi, the offering of grains and the sacrifice of the choicest animals in the herd. These rituals testified that the king had met all challenges or that no one had dared to challenge him. These ceremonies would remain central to Indian cults of kingship for another thousand years, influencing medieval kingship as it developed.