Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c37.65

c37.65

§232. The new king does not stop here. To impress that the administration, like a game of dice, is not possible by a single man, he asks the *Ratnins* to a symbolical game of dice. The bet is a cow, brought for the occasion by an ordinary member of the community.cont Thus in this great game of government which the king and his ministers were going to play, there was laid that sacred bet. The bet was the wealth of the most humble member of the community. It was willingly and graciously offered by the humble citizen. It was placed in their trust by a *Sajāta*, 'one born together' with the players, or, as Sāyaṇa explains, 'one of equal birth', i.e., one of the Nation. There is a constitutionalism put here in physical symbols; there is pathos intermingled with duty. The abstract has been thickly clad in the concrete.