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160 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
Rājña eva rājasīyam. Rājā vai rājasūyeneshtvā bhavati na vai Brāhmano rājyāyālam avaram vai rājasūyam param Vajapeyam.
A Brāhmaṇa king is, however, contemplated in a passage of the Aitareya Brāhmana. We have references to Śūdra, Āyogava an even non-Aryan kings in other Vedic texts. King Jānaśruti Pautrāyaṇa is branded a Śūdra in the Chhāndogya Upanishad. King Marutta Āvikshita is styled “Āyogava” in the Satapatha Brāhmaṇa. Āyogava denotes, in legal codes, a member of a mixed caste, a descendant of a Śūdra by a Vaiśya wife. Nishāda sthapatis (kings or chieftains) figure in a Srauta sūtra and the Rāmāyaṇa. In the Jaimintya Upanishad Brāhmana it is stated that even an anārya "obtains," prūpnoti, kings. This points either to non-Aryan kings or to the admission of anāryas into the dominions of Aryan rulers. The Jātakas and the Great Epic refer to kings of various castes including Brāhmaṇas.
Kingship was sometimes hereditary, as is indeed shown by several cases where the descent can be traced. Mention may be made in this connection of the Parikshitas and the kings of Janaka's line ; hereditary kingship is also suggested by the expression Daśapurushamrājyama kingdom of ten generations-occurring in the Satapatha Brāhmaṇa. But elective monarchy was not unknown.
1 VIII. 23 (story of Atyarātis' offer to Vāsishtha Sātyahavya). 2 IV. 2.1-5. Apparently Sūdra kings were not unknown in the age. 3 XIII. 5. 4. 6. 4 Manu-samhita, X. 12. 5 Vedic Index, I. 454 ; Rām. II. 50. 32 ; 84. 1. Jaim. Up. Br. 1. 4. 5. 6 Cf. Jatakas, 73, 132, Mbh. i. 100. 49f ; 138. 70.
7 XII, 9. 3. 1-3; cf. also the reference to the birth of an heir to the throne (Ait. Br. VIII. 9 and to the king as Rājpitā, VIII, 17.
8 Reference may be made in this connection to the passages of the Aitareya Brāhmana (e.g. VIII. 12) describing the choice and consecration of divine rulers (Ghoshal, A History of Hindu Political Theories, 1927, p. 26), and notices of royal election in post-Vedic texts looking back to an early period e.g. Moh., I. 94,
