Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c34.17

c34.17

They held that the first king was elected on certain conditions or on a contract, and that the original contract was always enforced subsequently.² According to this view the election was necessitated for internal administration, the authority of law by itself, the people having refused to follow. This theory of contractual monarchy, which undoubtedly was a reflex of the express republican theory of contract,³ found support in Vedic hymns and songs of royal election, in rituals of royal consecration which were based on elective principles, and in the Coronation oath which made the king swear that he should rule according to law.