The Men who would be King: Reading between the Lines of Dynastic Genealogies in India and Beyond Reading between the Lines of Dynastic Genealogies in India and Beyond
A critical examination of dynastic genealogies for pre-Islamic India derived from literary, epigraphic and numismatic sources reveals that they regularly suppress fraternal conflicts and other irregularities in the lineages. Although normative texts such as the Arthaśāstra and various D harmaśāstra...
| Published in: | Religions of South Asia |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Equinox
2011
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| In: |
Religions of South Asia
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| Further subjects: | B
royal succession
B rota system B collateral succession B Inscriptions B Indian history B Kārkoṭa dynasty B Western Kṣatrapas B collateral suppression B primogeniture B Gupta dynasty B Central Asian history B Rājataraṅgiṇī |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | A critical examination of dynastic genealogies for pre-Islamic India derived from literary, epigraphic and numismatic sources reveals that they regularly suppress fraternal conflicts and other irregularities in the lineages. Although normative texts such as the Arthaśāstra and various D harmaśāstra treatises present succession by the king’s eldest son as the norm, reading between the lines shows that this principle was often overruled or ignored. Some Indian dynasties of Iranian and Central Asian descent, notably the Western Kṣatrapas, followed a system of collateral, brother-to-brother succession which is characteristic of Central Asian polities, but here too a critical scrutiny shows that this principle was subject to various irregularities. In effect if not in principle, both systems, primogeniture and collateral succession, provide mechanisms to prevent or at least minimize the damage from fraternal conflicts, but both were evidently limited in their actual effects. |
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| ISSN: | 1751-2697 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religions of South Asia
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/rosa.v5i1/2.267 |