Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c36.65

c36.65

§ 219. The gods have been invoked to endow the potential king with ruling virtues 'for national rule', *jānarājyāya*,³ 'for the ruling of the folk', yet the rivers of the land, the waters of India are prayed to as 'bestowers of state' to confer the actual status of kingship. Gods might give him virtues for 'national rule', but they could not give the kingship of the land: it was the right of the waters in the land to do it. And they too only when combined from the highest to the lowest, could do it; hence the flattering address to a common country pool. An important conception is crystallised in this sacerdotal procedure. It is on the whole a crude symbolism but a symbolism enshrining a great idea for all ages.