Indian Epigraphy c16.s2.173

c16.s2.173

All kings, independent or subordinate, were often represented as the lord of the soil, the word for ‘soil’ also indicating ‘the earth’. But independent monarchs were sometimes actually represented as the ruler or conqueror of ‘the whole earth’ meaning thereby the conventional *cakravarti-kṣetra* bounded by the Himalayas and the three seas, viz. the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. This sphere of influence of a *cakravartin* or emperor was later conceived as two, the land between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas for North Indian rulers and the tract lying to the south of the Vindhyas for South Indian monarchs. This kind of representation of a king as the ruler or conqueror of the *cakravarti-kṣetra* is conventional and should not be regarded as historical.²