[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923) › c19.s4.22 # Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c19.s4.22 Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c19.s4.22 - **Language:** English ### [c19.s4.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s4.22) The exaltation of royalty in the epoch under review had the sanction of certain writers on kingly duty (\*Rājadharma\*) who represented the king as a "\*mahatī devatā\*," a great divinity, in human shape. But it was probably due in the first instance to the Scythians² who acted as carriers of Persian, Chinese and Roman ideas of kingship. The title \*Rājātirāja\*, supreme king overpassing other kings, as Rapson points out, is "distinctively Persian." "It has a long history from the \*Xshāyathiyānām Xshāyathiya\*³ of the inscriptions of Darius down to the \*Shāhān Shāh\* of the present day." The Kushān epithet "\*Devaputra\*" is apparently of Chinese origin, being the literal translation of the Chinese emperors' title "Son of Heaven" (\*Tien-tze\* ; \*tien tzu\*).⁴ If Lüders is to be believed, one at least of the Indo-Scythian sovereigns (Kanishka of the Ārā Inscription) - [Previous: c19.s4.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s4.21) - [Next: c19.s4.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s4.23) - [Up: c19.s4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s4) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s4.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s4.22) · Pramāṇa