[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic)](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1927) › c5.3 # Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c5.3 Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c5.3 - **Language:** English ### [c5.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1927.c5.3) of gifts by gods. Since sacrifices are essential to the safety and success of monarchs, every king must have a Priest. In fact, in religious matters the priest is the \*alter ego\* of the king. Rāṣṭragopa or protector of the realm is the epithet applied to him in the Ṛigveda. The high priest is half the Kṣatriya; he is indispensable to the success of royal enterprise. Along with his wife and son, he is the three-fold sacred fire for the king. If propitiated, he blesses the king with dignity, valour and dominion and ultimately secures him heavenly grace. If he is displeased, he hurls ruin and destruction on the realm.¹ It is remarkable that these claims stop short of direct control of the government. The Brāhmaṇas formed a caste but the caste had no organisation, no regulating machinery of its own. It had no means and, therefore, no ambition to supplant the government or reduce it to a servile position. On the other hand, many passages in Vedic literature emphatically claim divine sanction for the kingship, that is, for what we call the government and the state. The king derives his authority from the godhead; he is the representative of the Supreme Creator. It must be remembered that the early Indo-Aryan tribal polity comprised a popular assembly but the increase in the size of the territorial units and, above all, the prevalence of warfare tended to concentrate political power into the hands of the monarch. The monarchy is the predominant type of government in Indian history. The early speculators perceived the true cause of its origin. We are told that "the gods and the demons were fighting......the demons defeated the gods......the gods said, 'It is on account of our having no king that the demons defeat us. Let us make a king. So it be.'" Here in the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa the kingship originates in military necessity and derives its validity from consent. But the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa supplies the divine sanction without which no institution could claim whole-hearted allegiance. Thus we are told that Prajāpati, the creator, imparted lustre and royal powers to Indra who was at first the most inferior among the gods, but who afterwards surpassed all in vigour, strength and valour. Religion figured prominently in the installation of every new king on earth. The act of consecration or coronation was a most momentous one. It drew the consecrated close to the gods. Indeed, it made him one of them. It lifted him above punishment.¹ It consisted of one round of sacrifices, offerings and prayers. Gods like Indra, Soma, Agni and Brihaspati were propitiated. The elements through which the divine essence manifests itself were not forgotten. In the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, for example, prayers are offered to seventeen kinds of water for the bestowal of kingship.² The divine element in the kingship is further brought out in a myth which from its style seems to have arisen during the Vedic period though it is preserved only in the first commentary on the Yājñavalkya Smṛti. It so happened that the benevolence of gods and men failed to bring the mass of men under control. Prajāpati inquired who should do the necessary work and protect the people. The gods replied that they would create a king in the form of a man out of different attributes like beauty, valour, discipline and sacrifice taken from different gods, Soma, Āditya, Indra, Viṣṇu, and Yama.¹ - [Previous: c5.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1927.c5.2) - [Next: c5.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1927.c5.4) - [Up: c5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1927.c5) ## Linked texts (5) - [Taittirīyabrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.taittiriya) — Sanskrit - [Yājñavalkyasmṛti](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.dharma.yajnavalkya) — Yājñavalkya, Sanskrit - [Aitareyabrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.aitreya) — Mahidāsa Aitareya, Sanskrit - [Ṛgvedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.rg) — Sanskrit - [Śatapathabrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.satapatha) — Yājñavalkya & Śāṇḍilya (Vedic teacher), Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1927.c5.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.prasad-1927.c5.3) · Pramāṇa