The Mauryan Polity c7.s1.t5: A Constitutional Monarchy
The Mauryan Polity c7.s1.t5
- Language
- English
A Constitutional Monarchy
c7.s1.t5.1
The Mauryan king was again a constitutional monarch, law-abiding in the sense that he obeyed the law of the land. Almost every writer on the subject has uniformly characterised the Mauryan monarchy as autocratic. Unfortunately the statement seems to have been made without any warrant for it.² If by autocracy is meant absolute government wherein the ruler was all in all, and above whom there was no authority to control and influence his acts and deeds, then it does not admit of application in the case of Mauryan monarchs. The question has been to some extent discussed elsewhere¹ but still we cannot refrain from referring to it once again here. It is a question of moment and it must be settled once for all.
c7.s1.t5.2
² *Early History*, p. 145; *Early History of Bengal*, p. 35; D. R. Bhandarkar, *Aśoka*, p. 98; R. K. Mookerji; *Aśoka*; pp. 47-49; Smith, *Aśoka*, p. 92, 3rd ed.
c7.s1.t5.3
¹ See author's *Hindu Ad. Inst.*, pp. 72-76.