The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c7.136

c7.136

In the general political conditions, too, a change seems to have taken place by this time. The ideal of the big kingdom is now more pronounced than ever and the average size of the state also seems to have increased. The eighth book of the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa has a series of terms which denote variety or gradation of sovereignty—Râjya, Sâmrâjya, Bhaujya, Svârâjya, Vairâjya Pâramasthya, Mâhârâjya, Âdhipatya, Svâvaśya.¹ Further, the title for the kings of the Southerners, the Satvatas, is Bhoja; that for the kings of the Westerners, the Nīcyas and Apāoyas, is Svarāṭ; that for the kings of the Northerners, the Uttarakurus and the Uttaramadras, is Virāṭ; that for the kings of the people of the middle country, called Kuru Pañcālas and Uśīnaras, is simply Rājan. It is impossible to establish the exact significance of these terms, but when the title of Samrāṭ is applied to the kings of the Prācyas or Easterners, it seems like an inkling into the first beginnings of the Magadhan imperialism which was destined to affect the whole of India after the 5th century B. C.² Janaka, king of the Videhas, is also called Samrāṭ in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa³ and in the Bṛihadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad.⁴ Elsewhere the eighth book of the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa declares that monarchy at its highest should have a dominion extending right up to the natural boundaries, up to the very ends, in fact, up to the sea.⁵ It mentions twelve such monarchs.⁶ Divested of its obvious exaggerations, the statement means that from time to time some kings had actually developed their power far beyond the average and almost brought a new type of state into existence. It could only be either an empire in the strict sense of the term or a suzerainty. The latter alternative finds support in the thirty-ninth chapter of the same Brāhmaṇa, where the Aindra Mahābhiṣeka is spoken of. That rite is said to have been performed by great rulers like Janamejaya, Sāryāta, Śatrujit, Viśvakarman, Sudās and Marut, each of whom had succeeded in conquering the whole world. "A Kṣatriya who is consecrated with his Aindra Mahābhiṣeka, conquers all conquerors, knows all the worlds, becomes *superior to all kings*, gains renown and majesty, becomes self-created and self-ruled, after conquering 'empires,' countries ruled by the Bhojas, . . . . . after death ascends heaven and overcomes death." Superiority to all kings supplies the clue. The "conquest of the world" did not mean the extinction of existing kings but merely the acknowledgment of suzerainty. The same conclusion emerges from certain passages in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa.