Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c44.61

c44.61

The rule for the maintenance of which the emperor prays is about allowing religious service to prisoners under sentence of death. It is significant that the king now 'prays' and does not 'command' as in other documents. In the next regnal year, probably a few months after signing this document, the king composed a retrospect of his reign up to the year of signing the Rājūka decree. Evidently he then regarded the period of his rule as a past chapter and as distinct from the period of mere reign thereafter.