Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c4.4

c4.4

**Terms and Ceremonies of Imperialism.** The conception of paramount power and imperial sovereignty was so well established even in these early days that it expressed itself in appropriate technical terms, such as *Adhirāja*, *Rājādhirāja*, or *Samrāt*, liberally used in the Vedic texts. The *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* [VIII. 15] even uses the more significant term, *Ekarāṭ*, and, together with the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* [XIII. 5, 4], enthuses over the 'world-wide' conquests of the two Bharata kings, Dauḥshanti and Sātrājita Śatānīka, stating that "the great deeds of Bharata neither men before or after him attained, as the sky a man with his hands". These two texts also mention as many as twelve other such great kings. Even different ceremonies are described for different grades of kingship: the *Gopatha Brāhmaṇa* prescribes *Rājasūya* for the *Rājā*, *Vājapeya* for the *Samrāt*, *Aśvamedha* for the *Svarāt*, *Purushamedha* for *Virāṭ*, and *Sarvamedha* for *Sarvarāṭ*, while the *Āpastamba Śrauta Sūtra* [XX. 1, 1] reserves the *Aśvamedha* only for a *Sārvabhauma* sovereign.