STATE , POWER AND LEGITIMACY:THE GUPTA

DYNASTY

Q) Discuss the nature and functions of royal authority

in early India with special reference to the Guptas.

Submitted To: Prof. Kunal Chakrabarti

CHS/SS
Submitted by : A.Nayananandha Krishnan
69665

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 The idea of kingship has a pivotal role to play in the formation of Indian History.
From Puranic to Sramanic traditions, or from Kavyas to inscriptions, we could see that
the notion of kingship has been explained and studied extensively. Even though there
are different views and debates regarding its origin and nature, the sources could not
deny the existence of the institution.
In this paper, I have tried to understand the significance and aspects of kingship
in the Indian context, concentrating on the Gupta period by looking at the sources
provided.
The early Vedic texts uses the term rajan which could be roughly translated as
the ‘head’ who was supposed to have a superior status, physically as well as
intellectually and look after the people who acknowledged his superiority. Even though
the use of the term suggests the existence of a ruler or a king, R.S. Sharma relates it
to a tribal leader, who was both a priest and a warlord. He was also called gopati which
meant the protector of the cowherd and thus, we could infer that the ‘raja’ was the
head of the tribe whose primary duty was to protect his people. In return to his services,
the raja received tributes from his people and this, along with the territorial expansion
led to the emergence of rashtra where the raja became rashtrapala.
We could find a few different theories regarding the origin of the king or the
institution of kinship. The earliest of these can be found in The Rig Veda, where the
king is believed to have a divine origin. Indra was appointed the king by the other gods
after certain sacrifices as they believed it to be the only way to win the war with Asuras.
The new king was superior to the other devas who was the epitome of all qualities.
One of the other prominent theory revolves around the decay of the existing system
which ultimately leads to the emergence of a king. The Vana Parvan and Shanti
Parvan of Mahabharata talks about a state where there were no kings or any restraints,
where people were righteous and equal to gods and protected each other. Gradually
this ‘golden age’ began to decay and the world was at the verge of destruction which
forced people to restrain themselves with law and appoint a leader to make sure that
these laws were maintained. The doctrine of Matsyanyaya also comes into the context
while studying the origin. This theory originated from the idea that the big fish will
ultimately end up eating the small fish. It meant that in a society without a king or laws,
the strong will end up destroying the weak. This theory, according to
John.W.Spellman, is vital in understanding the kingship in ancient India. When we look
further into it , we could say that the kingship was a necessary evil. Spellman states,
‘Kingship was never held, per se, to be a good thing. It was a blessing only in that it
saved man from a worse condition.’1 Some sort of control was regarded better than a
state of anarchy.
The appointed king had certain obligations to his people. He was a weapon
against anarchy and chaos and he was supposed to protect his people. This could be
regarded as a two-way relationship between the king and his subjects, that is , the
king’s duty was to protect the people and the people had to pay taxes as a return to
the favor. The Matsyanyaya theory also talks about the concept of varnasramadharma

1
.Spellman,John,w., Political theory of ancient India. pp.06

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according to which the society was divided into various classes and the king ensured
that this order remained intact. The dharmasastras talks about 4 different sections in
the society , formed according to the duties of the people. The first two classes, that
are, the brahmins and the kshatriyas were superior to the last two, Vaishyas and
Shudras , and they engaged in non-productive functions and the latter section involved
in the productive functions. We could see that Samudragupta during his reign, tried to
revive the customs of Vedic past. As a result, the prime duty of the Gupta king was to
protect his people and receive donations in return. The king was also entrusted in
maintaining the social order and punishing those who curtain it. This throws light to the
notion of dandaniti, according to which the social order is maintained and people are
encouraged to perform the duties entitled to them by the ruler and because of which
people are abstained from adharma.
The selection of a king was based on many aspects. First and foremost, he
should hail from a high family and should be righteous . He was a military leader who
had control and possession on resources to protect his subjects. As mentioned earlier,
the early kings mentioned in Vedas had a divine connection which made them the
epitome of all qualities and the human kings were also expected to possess these
qualities. This included physical strength as well. Even though the succession to the
throne was hereditary and primogeniture, all the sons were overlooked. We could find
this instance in Mahabharata when the elder son Dritarastra was denied the throne
and the younger brother Pandu was appointed , as the former was blind. We could
find this in the case of Gupta dynasty as well. Samudragupta nominated his younger
son Chandragupta II as his successor since the elder son Ramagupta was weak. But
here, we should note that even though Chandragupta II was nominated by the king, it
was Ramagupta who first ascended the throne. This in fact brings us to another aspect
of the Gupta polity. The court and the people had a role to play in the appointment of
the king. It was their duty to ratify the decision of the king and so, the final word had to
come from them. Ramagupta was given the throne because of this since the people
favored the traditional custom of primogeniture.
Another important aspect that relates to the institution of kingship is the nature
of state. Just like the origin, this also have many theories revolving around it. Other
than the ‘Utopian world’ theory and the doctrine of Matsyanyaya, Spellman talks about
two more significant ideologies, that are, the organic and the sacrificial theory of the
state. As the name suggests, under the organic theory, the state would be divided into
different organs which are interdepended . He further states, ‘Each organ is concerned
with a special function of the organism and superiority may often be dependent upon
a particular threatening condition of the moment, with one organ, i.e. the head, usually
being most important and in a position of control.’2 According to the Hindu texts, a
state had seven elements, out of which the sovereign ruler, i.e. the swamin was
considered the most important.
The Sacrificial theory uses state as a sacrifice to attain salvation. The state
restrain itself from freedom and works according to the rules set down and fulfills their
duties. This takes us back to the varna system according to which each section of the

2
. Spellman,John,w., Political theory of ancient India. pp.08

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state is given duties to perform to maintain the balance in the society and attain a
better life. Just like the swamin is considered the most important organ of the state,
the kingly duties are the most vital amongst the others. Sacrifices were given upmost
importance and it was considered blasphemous from abstaining from it. The Guptas
too gave importance to sacrifices. As mentioned earlier, to revive the old customs and
practices, they performed sacrifices as well. We have evidences of the performance
of horse sacrifice, which was considered the most respected sacrifice and donation of
extensive wealth to the brahmins as well.
It is often stated that, Kalidasa, one of the greatest poets lived in India was
closely associated with the Gupta court. His Mahakavya , Raghuvamsa which talks
about the solar lineage, is believed to be based on the lives and conquests of
Samudragupta and Chandragupta II, in which he extensively discusses about the royal
lineage, territorial expansion and various political issues. The Kavya according to
Upinder Singh provided an authoritative and aesthetical idea of the kingship in the
form of high literature. Like Raghuvamsa, in his other significant work
Abhijnanasakuntalam, which narrates the legends of lunar lineages, Kalidasa talks
about the kingship and political aspects . Both the Kavyas according Upinder Singh
derive and deviate from puranic parallels. Still, Raghuvamsa relates more to the
puranas than Abhijnanasakuntalam.
As mentioned, Raghuvamsa is believed to have talked about the military
campaign and career of the kings of Gupta dynasty and because of its authoritative
and extensive enunciations of the territory, the Kavya is often considered more
accurate that the prasastis. It is majorly based on Valmiki Ramayana as it narrates the
story of the suryavamsa, the ancestors of Rama. Even then it should be differentiated
from Ramayana as the Kavya is not constrained to the life of Rama . It narrates the
stories of Dilipa and his successors , such as Raghu , Aja, Dasharatha, Rama and
ends with the pregnant widow of Agnivarna. The Raghuvamsa kings followed
hereditary succession and upon reaching the old age, they left wordily pleasures and
went to seek salvation. This invokes the relation of the kings with the gods. We can
get two kinds of divine aspects. There were kings who were compared to gods like
Dilipa or Raghu and Kings who were gods like Rama.
The ideal king of the Raghuvamsa was not restricted to enjoy the worldly
pleasures as we can see that they involved in hunting and indulged with women, two
of the four vyasanas. The notion of family and marriage also had importance as we
could see that the kings embraced the ‘familial relationships’. There existed the
systems of both swayamvara and political marriage alliances formed to strengthen the
power. Even though polygamy was practiced , the kings had a choice to restrain from
it if they wanted to and we should note that Kalidasa throws light on the problems and
conflicts that seemed to occur due to the practice of polygamy. When Dasharatha
followed polygamy, his son Rama choose to follow monogamy even after being
persuaded by Surpanaka. Interestingly, even though Raghuvamsa approves
polygamy, Kalidasa’s ideal king in the Kavya was a dutiful monogamous man.
Abhijnanasakuntalam, on the other hand talks about candravamsa, concentrating on
the story of Dusyanta and Sakuntala and it does not necessarily hold the puranic

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content like Raghuvamsa. Here, we could see that the king is compared to a muni or
saint rather than a god. Also, the concept of love can be seen given more importance
here, as we could see both Dusyanta and Sakuntala mutually attracted to each other.
Still, we should note that varna system holds a significant place as Dusyanta is been
shown anxious about sakuntala’s varna but later convinces himself that she should be
of higher class as he could not have fell for her otherwise. Dusyanta here is portrayed
as the king who hold on to the varnasrama order.
The relation of the king with his subjects is depicted almost similar in both the
Kavyas. They are supposed to protect their subjects and we have instances which
proves likewise such as Dilipa, who was ready to exchange his life to that of the cow
he was protecting. As mentioned before, they also retained the varna system believing
, they are protecting the people and the state upon doing that. In Raghuvamsa, we
could find a paternal aspect to the relationship between the king and the subjects and
the welfare of their praja was their prime concern. We could see this in the case of
Guptas as well. While choosing a successor, Samudragupta goes for Chandragupta
II as he was more able than the elder son. Here, the king puts the traditional customs
behind the welfare of his state.
One of the most important aspect of the Gupta polity can be regarded as the
role of women in the imperial matters. Women were considered incapable of involving
in the state affairs because of their ‘limitations’. But in the case of Gupta, we could see
Prabavati Gupta , daughter of Chandragupta II, indulging in the state affairs and
issuing land grants after her husband’s death. Interestingly , Kalidasa ends
Raghuvamsa with the unnamed pregnant queen of Agnivarna. It can be regarded as
a striking similarity between the Guptas and Raghuvamsa. This should be regarded
as important as Manu, in his smriti states that a woman can never be independent and
it was condemned in any case.

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REFERENCES
 Spellman, J.W., Political Theory of Ancient India: A Study of Kingship from the
earliest times to AD 300.
 Dikshitar, V.R.R, 1952, The Gupta Polity
 Sharma, R,S., 1959, Aspects of political ideas and institutions in ancient India.
 Roy, Kumkum,2011, Eds, Saswati Sengupta and Deepika Tandon, “Seeing and
hearing : representations of kingship in the Abhijnanasakuntalam and the
Raghuvamsam”, revisiting Abhinjanasakuntalam.
 Singh, Upinder,2011, “The power of a poet : kingship, empire and war in
Kalidasa’s Raghuvamsam”, in historical review, vol.38,no.02.
 Ingalls,Daniel.H.H, “Kalidasa and the Attitudes of the Golden Age”, Journal of
the American Oriental Society, Vol. 96,No.1, 1976