History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.67.1

v4.c62.67.1

There are in our authorities germs of several theories about the origin of kingship. Ṛg. X. 173 (which corresponds to Atharvaveda VI. 87 and 88. 1–2) has been taken as an election hymn by some writers (e. g. Jayaswal in ‘Hindu polity’ p. 7). But one is constrained to say that it is probably nothing of the kind. The only words that may lend some colour to the theory of election are ‘let all the people desire thee (as king)’ in Ṛg. X. 173. 1, but those words may apply as a benediction even in the case of one who is already a king. In the Atharvaveda III. 4. 2 there³⁹ is a reference to the election of a king by the people ‘the people (viśaḥ) chose thee to govern the kingdom, these quarters, the five goddesses (chose thee)’. In Atharvaveda III. 5, 6 and 7 also there is a faint allusion to the election of a king by nobles, king-makers, sūtas and headmen of villages, by the clever makers of chariots and the skilled workers in metals. These ‘king-makers’ are called ‘ratnins’ in other Vedic texts and the Tai. Br. I. 7.3 states in connection with the twelve offerings in the Rājasūya called ‘ratnināṁ havīṁṣi’ that the ‘ratnins’ give the (rāṣṭra) kingdom (to the king). Vide H. Dh. vol. II. p. 1215 n 2648 and p. 1216 for the ‘ratnins’. So it appears that the conception was that the king got the kingdom from nobles, high functionaries and the common people. For the coronation bath (and its implications) mentioned in the Ait. Br. vide note 105 below. The Ayodhyākāṇḍa (chap.