Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c38.31

c38.31

§ 238. "O Rājan! of the Bharata race! how this "title Rājā as at present understood (signifying 'monarch') evolved: please tell me that Grandfather! Having hands and arms and neck like others; subject to pain and pleasure like others; having intelligence and faculties like others; subject to "pain and pleasure like others; having back, face and stomach "like others; having similar albumen, bone and marrow, "similar in flesh and sinews; similar in inhaling and exhaling "breath; in body and life similar to others; equally subject to "birth and death; an equal in all the attributes "which men possess—how should he, one man, "rule over men of uncommon intelligence and heroes? How "should he alone rule the whole country full of brave, and "heroic Hindus? Again, although he is protect"ing, yet he seeks the satisfaction and "pleasure of the community. At the "same time, the whole community is "pleased by his, the one man's, pleasure, "and when the one man is in distress all "become distressed. This is a settled principle. "I want to hear on this from you, O Chief of the Bharatas. "Please expound to me the subject with underlying principles "exhaustively, O you the Great Expounder. The reason of "this, O Leader of the people! could not be insignificant, for "to this one man the whole creation looks for guidance as if "he were a God."