The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c9.s2.t1.42.1

c9.s2.t1.42.1

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.