Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/548

 238 Reviews.

Rathakaras may have been grouped together for military purposes, or the working Taksans may have been under Ratha- kara in time of war.

The remaining chapters, on Regal Succession (IV.), The Educa- tion of the Prince (V.), The Royal Duties (VI.), The Evolution of the Indo-Aryan Kingship (VIII.), and The Religious Aspects of Ancient Hindu Polity (IX.), all deal principally with the King himself and his religious functions. The rites of his coronation, consecration and deification are extra- ordinarily complicated and prolonged. They appear to have been elaborated under the influence of religion from a few simple types into a series wherein every type found a place after it had been modified in accordance with Brahmanical ideas. The crown is only just mentioned, and its significance is not explained. The coronation oath appears in one manual only, and does not seem to have been at all general. The whole con- ception of a King is that he is by his consecration re-born as a divinity. But this rebirth does not bestow on him an unlimited divinity. Like the Brahmana and the royal priest the King is endowed with supernatural power, but like the gods in general he has his limitations. His divinity does not place him above the observance of obligations attached to his office. But when he fails to fulfil them he commits a sin, not an offence against the State law which the State can constitutionally punish. With his sinlessness is bound up the whole well-being of the State and everything it contains. No ritual, however elaborate, can thus be too exacting to secure the King's sancti- fication and protect him from evil influences. One is not surprised to learn that the Rajasuya, the politico-religious ceremonies for the inauguration of the emperor, king, crown- prince and State-officials to their respective offices, alone occupies two years to work through. The Rajasuya was, in fact, a series of rites rather than a single or connected rite which followed on the accession rites. It may be rendered " con- secration," though Mr. Law reserves that term for the abhisecanlya, thus differing from Weber.

The present work must be regarded as that of a pioneer in a difficult country. It is therefore to be regretted that the