Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t2.188

c4.t2.188

⁴ Cf. Sen., op. cit., p. 64. We cannot resist the temptation of quoting here—when we have reached the end of our discussion on election—the pregnant words of Hopkins with reference to this question in the Epic Period: "If, however, the people had lost the right of determining absolutely the next occupant of the throne, they still retained, as we see through historical legends, in a limited though irregular form, the power of modifying the choice determined on by the aristocracy. They have still the unchallenged right of protesting against what seems to them an unworthy choice for their next ruler, and dare to deny any such choice to the present king, if it does not coincide with their views. And if we find that in no such case the people gain their point, it is still not less instructive to observe in what manner they lose it; for in each example that legend has preserved, we see that the king is obliged to make good his choice (never by force, but) by arguments addressed in a respectful manner to the protests of the people. The inner meaning of such legends seems to be that the king was not yet an absolute monarch, The people's constitution was the tradition of their race. This the king dared virtually to annal, but he did not yet venture to set it aside without a pretext, nor did he feel himself, independent of the veto that the people had the power of declaring" "J.A.O.S., 13, pp. 137-8.