History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.236

v4.c62.236

The Mahābhārata records the tradition that many kings of former times abdicated the throne in favour of their sons and resorted to the forest as hermits. Vanaparva 202.8 mentions Bṛhadaśva who crowned his son Kuvalāśva. Vide also Vāyu 88.32. Dhṛtarāṣṭra says to Yudhiṣṭhira that in their family it was customary for kings to transfer the sovereignty to their sons and resort to a forest towards the close of their lives (Āśramavāsi 3.38). Vyāsa says that that was the practice of all *rājarṣis* (Āśramavāsi 4.5) and the Āśramavāsiparva (20) mentions the names of several such kings. Vide also Śānti 21.15. In Ayodhyā 23.27, 94.19 this practice is referred to.¹²⁹ In the Raghuvamśa (I. 8, XVIII. 7, 9, 26) Kālidāsa says that in the family of Raghu kings in their old age became *munis* (hermits) and in chap. VIII. 11-23 he draws a fine contrast between the lives of Aja and his father Raghu (who had become a *yati*). There are Jain traditions of some antiquity that connect the great Jain sage Bhadrabāhu, the last Śrutakevalin, with Candra-gupta Maurya, who is said to have abdicated in favour of his son and to have gone to Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa. Vide Indian Antiquary, vol. 21 pp. 156 ff where Fleet criticizes this tradition and rejects it. In the Divyāvadāna (XXIX p. 431, ed. by Cowell and Neil) it is stated that Aśoka died destitute of power¹³⁰ and possessions and Fleet (in J. R. A. S. for 1913 pp. 656-658) says that there is in this probably a reminiscence of abdication by Aśoka. King Lavaṇaprasāda of the Vāghela dynasty in Gujerat abdicated in favour of his son Vīradhavala (1233-38 A. D.). Vide Bombay Gazetteer, vol. I part 1 pp. 198, 200, 206.