Indian Antiquary Vol 48

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 98

94
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(JONE, 1919
Hence, there are at present no evidences by which the ceremony of the installation of the crown-prince can be traced to the Vedic period.
References are found in the Epics to the yauvarajyabhisheka of Råma, 45 Angada, 6 Bharata,7 Yudhishthira, 48 Bhish ma,"9 Bhîma, 50 and Satyavâna. 61
Details of the ceremony are not forthcoming from any of the works consulted by me. The Ramayana furnishes a short account of the preparations made for Råma's yauvarrijyabhisheka, but as they are not perhape exhaustive, we cannot draw from them any correct inference as to either the things needed for the ceremony or the rituals and functions in which they were used. The short account is, however, striking in that it does not include water or soil brought from various places, forming a prominent feature of the coronation ceremony and as such receiving the first attention in the preparations for Rama's coronation.52
There was no restriction as to the age at which a successor to a sovereign was installed as the crown-prince. Rama was twenty-five 53 years old at the time of his proposed installation to crown-princeship and Bharata about forty, when he was so installed; both Yudhishthira and Satyavâna were young 55 when they went through the ceremony, but Bhima was far more advanced in years when he became a crown-prince. There was, therefore, no hard and fast age-limit for this ceremony, though it seems to have been the usual practice for the king to choose his successor as soon as the latter completed the prescribed period of studies and was ready to share as crown-prince the responsibilities of a ruler.
No instances are forthcoming to show whether yauvdrajyabhisheka was a bar to the subsequent celebration of the coronation ceremony when the crown-prince became the king. Yudhishthira's coronation after the recovery of his kingdom and subsequent to his y tuvirajyabhisheka cannot be taken as a case in point in view of its merger in that of restoration to a lost kingdom.56 That-the recovery of a lost kingdom was an occasion for a fresh coronation stands clear from the case of Dyumutsena.57 Prof. Goldstücker inclines to the view that the performance of the yauvardjyabhisheka "held good for the inauguration of the prince at his accession to the throne, after the father's death, since no mention is made, in the epic poems, of a repetition of the ceremony. The object of the inauguration of a prince as yuvarája is to secure to him the right of succession, and, besides the advantages supposed to arise from the religious ceremony, as mentioned before, a share in the government, or perhaps all the privileges of a reigning king. For when Dasaratha intends to make his son Râma & yuvardja, he addresses him with these words (in the Ayodhya-kanda, 58): "Rama, I am old; .... To-day, all my subjects want thee tor their king: therefore, my son, I shall inaugurate thee as junior king." 59 In the above argument, stress is laid on the words spoken by Daśaratha to the effect that the subjects wanted Ráma as their king (naradhipa) but the force of the very next words uttered by him, viz., "therefore, my son, I shall inaugurate thee as junior king" is 'ignored. What
45 Ramayana, Ayodhya-kânda, ch. 3.
46 Ibid, Kishkindha-kânda, ch. 26, élk. 13. 17 Ibid, Yuddha-kaņda, ch. 128, blk. 93. 48 Mbh. (Mahabharata), Adi-parva, ch. 139, 6lk. 1. 49 loid, ch. 100, slk. 43.
50 Ibid, Santi-parva, ch. 41, élk. 9. 51 Ibid, Vana-parva, ch. 298, lk. 11.
52 Ramdyana, Yuddha-kânda, ch. 128, 6lke, 18.67. 53 Ibid, Aranya-kânda, ch. 47, Slk. 10.
154 Ibid, BAla-kânda, ch. 18. 55 Joh., Adi-kānda, ch. 141, lk, 27; Vana-parva, ch. 293, slk. 25. 5 Mh., Sânti-parva, ch. 40.
Ibid, Vana-parva, ch. 298, alk. 11. ! Ramayana, Ayodhya-kânda, ch. 40. . 55 Goldstücker's Sanskrit-English Dictionary under " Abhisheka", p. 282,