State and Government in Ancient India c12.s3.1

c12.s3.1

We may now passingly refer to a few points of constitutional importance connected with a hereditary monarchy. In the case of ordinary families, property was divisible among brothers according to the Hindu law; the law of primogeniture, however, prevailed in the case of monarchy. It was realised that the division of a kingdom among different brothers would make it weak and lead to its eventual destruction.⁴ The crown, therefore, usually passed to the eldest son,⁵ but his brothers were generally appointed to responsible posts in the government like governorships or viceroyalties.¹ We get several such instances both in the Jātaka stories and actual history.