A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c7.8

c7.8

Such is a brief outline of the primitive institutions of the Indo-Aryans as reflected in the Rigveda, and these form the historical background of the theories of the State that were first formulated by the Hindu thinkers. It is convenient to begin our description of these theories with the view of the king's relations to his subjects. The Indo-Aryan king indeed is invested from the first with divine attributes. Already in the Rigveda, in a hymn attributed to Trasadasyu, king of the Purus, the royal sage sings, “Twofold is my empire, that of the whole Kṣatriya race, and all the immortals are ours : the Gods associate me with the acts of Varuṇa : I rule over (those) of the proximate form of man. I am the king Varuṇa ; on me (the gods) bestow those principal energies (that are) destructive of the Asuras ; (they) associate me with the worship of Varuṇa. I rule over (the acts) of the proximate form of man. I am Indra, I am Varuṇa, I am those two in greatness : (I am) the vast, profound, beautiful heaven and earth : intelligent, I give like Twastri animation to all beings : I uphold earth and heaven.” The address is continued in the same strain through the three following stanzas, but it is unnecessary to quote them here. In the closing stanzas, Trasadasyu describes himself as resembling the God Indra and as a demi-god (arddha-deva).¹ In this striking hymn, it will be observed, the king compares and nearly identifies himself with the two leading deities of the Vedic pantheon. Such statements could hardly have occurred in the Rigveda, had they been completely out of tune with the sentiments of the time.