History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.172

v4.c62.172

The Aitareya Brāhmaṇa (38) describes the Great Coronation of Indra (*Aindra mahābhiṣeka*) and in that connection mentions how the kings of the Sātvatas in the south were called ‘Bhoja’ after coronation, the kings of the eastern countries were called ‘samrāṭ’, the kings in the west were called ‘svarāṭ’ and the kings of the north i. e. of countries beyond the Himālaya (viz. Uttarakurus and Uttaramadras) were called ‘virāṭ’. Then (in 39) it states that the kṣatriya king is to be made to take an oath and is to be crowned in the manner of the Aindra Mahābhiṣeka¹⁰⁵. The oath which the kṣatriya is to take before the priest with faith is: ‘the merit of sacrifices and good works that belongs to me from the night I was born up to the night on which I shall die, my worlds, good deeds, life, progeny,—these you may destroy if I hate (or prove false to) thee’. Vide note 41 above for the coronation oath in Śānti 59. 106 ff. It will be noticed that this passage of the Ait. Br. contains no undertaking given by the king to the people to rule according to dharma or for their welfare. So this passage cannot strictly be interpreted as postulating a contractual basis for the authority or power of the king, as done by Jayaswal (‘in Hindu Polity’ part II. p. 28). The Ait. Br. sets out the materials (*sambhāras*) for the coronation of a king (in chap. 39·2) viz. fruits of nyagrodha, udumbara, aśvattha and plakṣa trees, grains of small rice, large-sized rice, priyaṅgu and barley, a couch of udumbara with span-long feet, a spoon with a four-cornered scooped basin of udumbara and an udumbara vessel, on one of which two the other materials were to be placed and curds, honey, clarified butter and rain water gathered when the sun is shining. The mantras to be recited are mentioned in 39·3–4 and the fee in 39·6. In the Rājasūya (to be performed only by a kṣatriya) described in the Brāhmaṇas and sūtras, the principal rite is the Abhiṣecanīya in which the king is bathed with waters brought from seventeen sources in seventeen vessels of udumbara wood. Vide H. Dh. vol. II. pp. 1216–1218 for the rite. The Rājanītiprakāśa (p. 92–107) explains the procedure of coronation from the Ait. Br. In the Rājasūya, among the preliminary rites are the offerings called 'ratnināṁ havīṁṣi' (the offerings in the houses of the jewels, which are twelve). Vide H. Dh. vol. II pp. 1215-16. They have a symbolical value. The person to be crowned recognizes the importance of his high functionaries and is declared to be their king and they are supposed to approve of him as king. In the Abhiṣecanīya rite of the Rājasūya, there are two parts, a religious and a popular. First, the adhvaryu and the other priests sprinkle the king with holy water collected from various sources in vessels; then the king's brother, a friendly kṣatriya and a vaiśya also sprinkle him with the holy water. This last is symbolic of the popular approval of the coronation.