Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c45.2

c45.2

§ 325. Apart from the operation of the Coronation-Oath, the checks and limitations imposed by the Paura-Jānapada and the Council, there was the all-powerful Law, (the Common Law of the Hindus, which is declared again and again to be above the king and as the king of kings.¹ In Manu the king is made liable to be fined.² His powers and obligations are defined in the law-sūtras and law-books as part and parcel of the law) (in chapters on Constitutional Law, the *Rājadharma* or 'Laws for Kings'). Even in the palmiest days of Hindu Monarchy, neither in the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra nor in the Artha-śāstra, was the king placed above the law. He could make new laws according to the Artha-Sāstra, according to Manu he could not do so; but when he could make laws he passed only regulatory laws³ and not laws substantive or laws making him arbitrary.