This article analyses and compares ancient Greek and Indian social contract theories. On the Greek side, social theories comprising a contractual understanding of the origins of society are encountered, inter alia, in the works of Herodotus, Plato and Polybius – while comparable Indian accounts may be gathered from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, the Dīgha Nikāya and the Mahābhārata. Through close readings of these and other texts, it is shown that both the Greek and Indian theories largely rely on the concept of monarchy as the cornerstone of social order. The Greek and Indian accounts also incorporate certain elements reoccurring in early modern European social contract theories, yet in other respects the former fundamentally differ fromthe latter.