Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c28.17

c28.17

§ 175. The evidence of the Chatuś-Śatikā of Āryadeva, a fragmentary manuscript of which was discovered by Mahāmahopādhyāya Hara Prasad Shastri,³ establishes that the elected ruler in a Gaṇa was regarded as a servant of the Gaṇa (*gaṇa-dāsa*). The same principle is declared by Kṛishṇa in the discussion cited in the Mahā-Bhārata. 'It is the servant's duty (dāsya) which 'I have to perform under the name of rulership (*Aiśvarya-Vādena*).'²