Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c9.10

c9.10

The king attended the Samiti, and it was thought necessary that he should do so. The Ṛig-Veda has ‘like a true king going to the Samiti’ (राजा न सत्यः॒ समितो॑रियानः).² The inference is that it was the king’s duty to attend the Samiti, and that if he did not attend it, he would be considered ‘untrue,’ the significance of which we shall see when we come to the ceremony of Vedic Coronation. The practice of the king presenting himself before the Samiti continued probably as long as the Samiti existed. The Chhāndogya Upanishad, one of the youngest Vedic works, relating the visit of Śvetaketu Āruṇeya Gautama to the Samiti of the Pañchālas, mentions the King (Pravāhaṇa Jaivala) as present in the Samiti.³