The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c9.s2.t1.42

Language: English

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The succession to the throne was hereditary and normally went by the rule of primogeniture. But a grave physical defect was generally tantamount to a disqualification. We are once told in the Udyoga Parvan that the gods do not approve of a defective king.³ In the Epic a new king has generally to be accepted by the people. The Mahābhārata embellishes the Brihaddevatā legend in which Devāpi declines the throne on the score of his skin disease. Pratīpa had three sons, Devāpi, Bālhīka and Śaṃtanu. The eldest, a leper, loved by the whole family, is about to be installed, when “the priests, seniors, inhabitants of the city and the country forbid his consecration.” The king yields.⁴ The blind Dhritarāṣṭra is passed over in favour of his younger brother Pāṇḍu. On the other hand, some exceptional reason might induce people to discount any physical defect. Once in the Vana Parvan they insist on having a blind man as their king.¹ On the death of Pāṇḍu, the sceptre temporarily goes to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, but the question of regular succession comes to the fore when Yudhiṣṭhira, the eldest son of Pāṇḍu, reaches majority. The story of the epic favours the view that the crown belonged *de jure* to the family of Pāṇḍu. The first move to instal Duryodhana, the eldest son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra on the throne raised a wild popular uproar.

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Much earlier when Dhṛtarāṣṭra had first inquired if his newly-born son Duryodhana would be king, ‘Jackals and other animals began to howl ominously.’² The minor episodes of the epic also point to hereditary succession and popular acceptance of the king. In the Aśvamedha Parvan the people dethrone a king but immediately proceed to invest his son Suvarcā with the rights of sovereignty.³ In the myth of the early kings when the tyrant Veṇa is bereft of life by the Ṛiṣis, the sceptre is entrusted to his son Pṛthu.⁴ In extraordinary contingencies the people practically elect a King. Thus, in the Ādi Parvan all the people chose Kuru, son of Saṃvaraṇa to be their king, for, they said, “he is a virtuous man.”⁵ Again, Janamejaya, though a mere boy, is elected king by the united voice of the people of the city. He ruled with the help of his priests and ministers.⁶ The practice of installing a prince as heir-apparent and even king during the lifetime of his father is in evidence. Thus, in the Ādi Parvan, Nahuṣa instals his son when he has secured the consent of the people of the city and the country.⁷ It is clear that in spite of the recognition of hereditary succession and primogeniture, a king has to be formally accepted by the people. Protest and tumult follow if there is anything radically wrong with the king-designate. In the epic, indeed, people appear on the stage on all extraordinary occasions.

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When Dhṛtarāṣṭra proposes to pass over his nephew Yudhiṣṭhira, the rightful heir, in favour of his own son, the people raise a fearful outcry. They meet in assemblies, streets and courtyards and demand that Dhṛtarāṣṭra should be deposed, that Yudhiṣṭhira should not only be declared heir-apparent but forthwith installed as King. Dhṛtarāṣṭra, they declared, had long ago forfeited the right to the kingdom on account of his blindness. How could he now have a right to transmit it to his son¹ Towards the close of the story, when old Dhṛtarāṣṭra leaves for forest-life, he addresses the whole multitude and commends the people to the care of Yudhiṣṭhira who speaks in his turn.² When resolved on renunciation, Yudhiṣṭhira arranged that his grand-nephew Parīkṣit should be king in Hastināpur. He called his subjects together and informed them of his plans. They were disconcerted at the news and unanimously disapproved of the king's intention to abdicate. "This should never be done." But Yudhiṣṭhira succeeded in persuading them to accept his proposals.³ (The king was expected to be accessible to all, even to agriculturists.⁴) On the other hand, the Epic, in some of its episodes, assumes that the king could do what he liked with his kingdom.

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At the game of dice which constitutes one of the central events in the plot of the Epic, Yudhiṣṭhira pawns and loses his city, his country, his lands, “the wealth of all dwelling therein except of Brâhmaṇas and all those persons themselves except Brâhmaṇas, still remaining to me.”¹ Nala similarly loses his kingdom and his wealth to his brother Puṣkara who drives him away and proclaims throughout the city that any one showing any attention to Nala would be put to death. As a result none showed any regard to their erstwhile sovereign.²