Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c38.57

c38.57

§242. Kingship had become hereditary.² Yet the theory that Hindu kingship is elective was never forgotten. This was due to, I think two factors. On failure of the lines, as Megasthenes³ has recorded, elections had been actually taking place; and the observance of the coronation ceremonials and rituals kept the theory ever green. Even in Moslem times when Śivaji was installed as King, 'Chhatrapati,' the ceremony took the form of election. The theory was a living force as late as the time of the Pāla kings of Bengal. Gopāla claims the benefit of the principle of election in his inscription. He says that the people joined his hand with sovereignty and put an end to anarchy⁴. In earlier times the theory was, of course, current in the mouth of sovereigns and peoples. In the second century of the Christian era Rudradāman states in his inscription that he had been ‘*elected* by all the Varṇas to kingship.’¹