The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c7.s1.19

c7.s1.19

The sole unifying factor in medieval European development was the magic name of Rome and the halo of the Roman empire. But, in practical politics, in spite of Bury’s special pleading in his *Later Roman Empire*¹ to demonstrate the existence of a theoretical unity, the name of Rome led to anything but unity in western life. Such a Rome Hindustan also had in its Pâtaliputra. Built about B. C. 450 by Udaya of the Śiśunâga dynasty the city remained the seat *par excellence* of historic empires under Mauryas, Sungas, Guptas, and Pâlas. In India, too, it was ever the ambition of powerful Charlemagnes to attempt achieving the glory of the Vikramâdityan *sârva-bhaumas*. Further, during the period from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century Mohammedan Delhi occupied the place of the older Pâtaliputra and became a second Indian Rome, at once the crown of honor and bone of contention to all *vijigîṣus* or aspiring Siegfrieds, whether Hindu or Moslem.