The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c10.41

c10.41

replies the king, "in no way do all the subjects of my kingdom belong to me, nor am I their lord; only over those who rise against the king and do wrong am I lord. Therefore I cannot give you unrestricted power over the whole kingdom" (I, 398). Here the king is the guardian and censor rather than the master of his subjects and is not supposed to be capable of dealing with the kingdom as he likes. But elsewhere a king is prepared of his own accord to make over his kingdom to an ascetic (III, 80, also 353). In another curious story, when the queen-mother falls in love with the Purohita, the king makes the latter king, his own mother queen and himself acts as viceroy (III, 392). Once a king actually divides his kingdom with a poor man and the two rule in harmony and friendship until the new half-king embraces asceticism (III, 448-49). In these stories the kingdom is looked upon almost as private property which can be partitioned or surrendered at will. Both the different conceptions may be true of the different places or times.