History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.90
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.90
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Apart from conquest and election in rare cases, monarchy was hereditary and generally descended by primogeniture. The passage from the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (XII. 9.3, 1 and 3) mentioning the descent of kingship for ten generations in succession has already been referred to (p. 26). Though succession was hereditary it was the general rule that the eldest son ascended the throne when the reigning monarch died or abdicated. The rights of the eldest son or daughter as against the younger son or daughter were very jealously guarded in the vedic age. It has already been shown how marrying before one's elder brother or sister was condemned in the vedic age and also in the times of the smṛtis (H. Dh. II. pp. 546-549). Even the Ṛgveda several times refers to *jyaiṣṭhya* (rights of seniority) of Indra (Ṛg. I. 5. 6, III. 50.3). The Tai. S. II. 2.11.5 states that the gods agreed to treat Indra as the 'jyeṣṭha' (the eldest) and Tai. S. II.⁴⁹ 5. 2. 7 refers to the ancient practice of giving all wealth (of the father) to the eldest son. The Ait. Br. 19.4 narrates the story that the gods did not accept Indra's position as the eldest and most exalted among them and that Indra then induced Bṛhaspati to perform the Dvādaśāha sacrifice for him, whereby he secured that position. The Nirukta II.
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10 sets out the interesting story that Devāpi and Śāntanu were two brothers, scions of the Kuru family, of whom Devāpi was the eldest, but Śāntanu the younger one got himself crowned king and so Devāpi practised austerities. The result was that there was a drought in Śāntanu's kingdom for 12 years. The brāhmaṇas said to him 'You are guilty of having violated dharma in that passing over the eldest brother you got yourself crowned. Therefore God does not send down rain'. Then Śāntanu desired to give the kingdom to Devāpi, who however said that he would be his purohita and make him perform a sacrifice. The Ṛgveda hymn X. 98 was then composed by Devāpi for bringing down rain. This story shows how long before Yāska the popular belief was that it was a great sin to pass over an elder brother in marriage and other matters and doing so brought down the serious displeasure of the gods. Vide Bṛhad-devatā VII. 156-157 and VIII. 1-9 for the same story in a little greater detail, viz. that Devāpi suffered from a skin disease, that when Devāpi said to the subjects that he did not deserve the kingdom and that Śantanu should be their king, the subjects crowned Śantanu as king. When Yayāti desired to pass over his elder sons Yadu and others because they disobeyed him and wanted to make the younger Pūru his successor the brāhmaṇas and citizens protested 'How can the younger son secure the kingdom passing over the elder one⁵⁰'?
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Arjuna upbraids Bhīmasena who got enraged against Yudhiṣṭhira 'who would act against one's eldest brother that follows the path of dharma?' (Sabhā 68.8). In the Rāmāyaṇa⁵¹ Daśaratha addresses Rāma (II. 3.40) 'you are born of my eldest queen, who is of the same class as myself (i. e. of kṣatriya blood)' and Vasiṣṭha says to Rāma 'Among all Ikṣvākus the eldest son becomes the king; a younger brother is not crowned king when the elder exists' (II. 110.36). The Ayodhyākāṇḍa in several places (8.23-24, 101.2) reiterates the idea that all the sons of a king do not succeed but only the eldest, although the other sons may be equally fit and endowed with qualities. Kauṭilya (I. 17)⁵² states that people esteem rulership going to the eldest except in the case of some calamity. Manu IX. 106 says that by the very birth of the eldest son, a man becomes free from the debt he owes to his *pitṛs* and therefore the eldest deserves to get everything from the father. The Rājadharmak. (pp. 234-235) after quoting the Kālikāpurāṇa and the Rāmāyaṇa lays down the following propositions: (1) the aurasa son of a king alone succeeds in preference to the eleven kinds of secondary sons (whether he is junior or senior in age); (2) if the son of a junior queen (of the same caste) is senior by birth, he succeeds in preference to the son of the senior queen, who (son) is younger in age; (3) if two sons are born to two queens at the same moment, the son of the senior queen is preferred;
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(4) if twins are born to the senior queen, the son who is born first is to be preferred.