Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c44.42

c44.42

§ 318. Under such a constitution if a king had despotic tendencies the result would be a revolution: either the king would be made to mend his method or the constitution would be subverted and the ministers (council) put in prison or assigned to the executioner. But the ministers had the Paura and the Jānapada behind them and the law and tradition of the country to support them¹. Hindu institutions did not easily change, and constitutional laws once established and made sacred by the Śāstras could not be deviated from with impunity. We have the recorded instance of the pious despotism developed by Aśoka, and what was the result? Was the Ministry overthrown and the constitutional laws set at naught? Or was the despot deprived, if not of his throne, of his sovereignty? There is the combined evidence of Aśoka's inscription and the Divyāvadāna, both of which are adverse statements against interest and therefore entitled to perfect credence.