Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c43.2

c43.2

§ 292. Was the Hindu king a personal ruler? To answer this let us examine the position of the Hindu Council of Ministers. To appreciate the constitutional position of the Council of Ministers it is necessary to recall the previous history of the Council. The Hindu Council of Ministers was a body and an organism which had differentiated and branched off from the old National Assembly of Vedic times. In the Atharva-Veda, as we have already noticed, the **rājakṛits** are a part of the 'folk around' the king who invest him with sovereignty.¹ The rājakṛits or 'king-makers' appear later as **Ratnin** High Functionaries (Commander in-chief, Treasurer, etc.) whom the king-elect worships before his consecration.² In worshipping the Ratnins, he does honour to them both as officers of the state and as representatives of the society. Their approval like the approval of the remaining representatives of the Community was solicited before the election of the would-be king. In other words, they are officers but as part of the community, and not as creatures of the crown. This origin is further borne out by the technical expression applied to denote their collective body.