Chakravartin
Also called: Chakravarti samrat · Topic: India, That Is Bharat: Names of India and Unity in Diversity · NCERT: Class 9, Ch 5 "State and Society up to 1000 CE"
Meaning
A Chakravartin was the ideal of a "universal ruler", a king whose power reached across the whole land. The word means "one whose wheel (chakra) rolls everywhere without being stopped". Ancient Indian texts, such as the Arthashastra, described his area of rule as the chakravarti kshetra: the land from the Himalayas down to the sea. The idea shows that ancient Indians saw the Subcontinent as one land that could be ruled as a whole. Many kings tried to claim the status. They performed grand rituals, such as the ashvamedha (horse sacrifice, which announced a king's power over other kings), and took high titles.
Example
The Gupta king Samudragupta (c. 4th century CE) performed the ashvamedha. He also issued gold coins that showed the sacrificial horse, to claim that he was the supreme ruler of the land.
Don't confuse with
- Ashvamedha: this was a ritual a king performed to claim power. The chakravartin was the ideal of universal kingship that the ritual tried to show.