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IMPERIAL UNITY
185 The desire for union under one political authority became manifest as early as the Brāhmaṇa period and found expression in passages like the following :
"May he (the king) be all-encompassing, possessed of all the earth, possessed of all life, from the one end up to the further side of the earth bounded by the ocean, sole ruler (ekarāt).”
The ideal persists throughout our period and inspired poets and political philosophers who spoke of the thousand yojanas (leagues) of land that stretch from the Himālayas to the sea as the proper domain of a single universal emperor (chakravarti-kshetra) and enlogised monarchs who protected the earth decked with the Ganges, as with a pearl necklace, adorned with the Himavat and the Vindhya, as with two earrings, and robed with a swinging girdle in the shape of the rocking oceans.
The imperial ideal had to contend with the centrifugal tendencies of Jānapada (provincial and tribal) autonomy. The two forces operated in successive epochs almost with the regularity of the swing of the pendulum. The aspiration for a unity that transcended local boundaries owed its success not a little to the presence of another factor in Indian politics—the danger threatening from foreign invaders. It was only when the earth was harassed by the barbarians” (Mlechchhairudvejyamānā) that she sought refuge in the strong arms of Chandra Gupta Maurya, the first great historical emperor of India—whose dominions undoubtedly overstepped the limits of Āryāvarta. Among the early empire-builders of_the-south was a prince who rid his country of the Scythians, Greeks and Parthians (Saka-Yavana-Pahlava-nishādana). And the rulers who revived the imperial glory of the Gangetic Provinces in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., were warriors who humbled the pride of the Scythian “Son of Heaven” and 0. P. 93—24.
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| SR No. | 032292 |
| Book Title | Political History Of Ancient India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Hemchandra Raychaudhari |
| Publisher | University of Calcutta |
| Publication Year | 1950 |
| Total Pages | 714 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 17 MB |