Public Administration in Ancient India c8.30

c8.30

Chandragupta was not the first monarch to aspire to the title of ‘Samrāt’ or ‘King of Kings.’ The people for many centuries previously had been familiar with the Chakravarti or Suzerain idea. The later Vedic literature abounds with references to paramount rulers (Adhirāja, Samrāt, Sārvabhauma, etc.). The Aitareya Brāhmana and the Satapatha Brāhmana give detailed descriptions of the ceremonies that were to be performed by paramount sovereigns. According to tradition Trasadasyu, the grandson of Kutsa of Vedic fame, was the first to assume the title of Emperor, and Bharata was the first monarch to bring the whole country under the influence of Āryan civilisation. In the Mahābhārata we read of Jarāsandha’s ambition to become a paramount sovereign, of his defeat by the Pāndavas, of Yudhishthira’s Digvijaya (conquest of all the quarters) and assumption of the imperial title. It should be remembered however, that what these powerful monarchs of old aimed at was the establishment, not of an imperial rule, but of a sort of nominal supremacy over the other Kings. And one chief object of these endeavours was to bring a large part of India together by binding the Kings in a sort of alliance for offensive and defensive purposes with the strongest among them as the nominal suzerain. Ajātasatru and Mahāpadma Nanda endeavoured to bring large tracts of country under their rule, but it was Chandragupta who for the first time succeeded in bringing under one direct authority the entire country from Afghanistan to the Bay of Bengal, and from the Himālayas to beyond the Vindhya mountains. For a thousand years after the establishment of Chandragupta’s supremacy, India witnessed a continual struggle for imperial suzerainty made in different parts of the country and attended with varying degrees of success.