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516 ·POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA on their internal organisation, and it serves no useful purpose to ascribe to them institutions which really belong to their predecessors or successors.
Though the Scythians could not annihilate the republican clans, they did destroy many monarchies of Northern and Western India, and introduce a more exalted type of kingship. The exaltation of monarchy is apparent from two facts, namely, the assumption of high-sounding semidivine honorifics by reigning monarchs, and then apotheosis of deceased rulers. The deification of rulers, and the use of big titles are not unknown to ancient Indian literature, but it is worthy of note that a supreme ruler like Aśoka, whose dominions embraced the greater part of India and possibly Afghanistān, was content with the titles of “Rājā” and “Devānampiya Piyadasi.”l. The great rulers of the Scythian age, on the other hand, were no longer satisfied with those modest epithets, but assumed more dignified titles like Chakravartin (emperor of a circle of states), Adhiraja (super-king), Rājātirāja (supreme king of kings), and Devaputra (the son and not merely the beloved of the gods).
In Southern India we come across titles of a semireligious character like Kshemarāja, 2 Dharma-Mahārājādhirāja and Dharma-Yuvamahārāja,3 assumed by pious defenders of Indian faiths, engaged in upholding dharma as practised by the ancient teachers and law-givers, and
1 'Of Gracious Mien, Beloved of the Gods.' 2 Lüders' Ins., No. 1345. "The beneficent or propitious king', 'prince of
peace'.
3 "The Rightoeus King of Kings", "the Righteous Crown Prince". Lüders' Ins., Nos. 1196, 1200. For the significance of the title, cf. IA, 5, 51, "Kaliyugadoshāvasanna-dharmoddharana-nitya sannaddha." Cf. also the epithets "Manvā-dipranita-vidhi-vidhanadharma Dharmarāja iva," "prakshālitakali-kalankaḥ" applied to the Maitraka Kings of Valabhi (Bhuvnagar Inscriptions, 31.). Sometimes even Saka rulers and generals posed as Dharmavijayi (JASB, 1923, 343).
