BEGINNING OF MONARCHY IN INDIA
IKSHVAKU -THE FOUNDER OF THE
DYNASTY
The
first historically important king of India was Ikshvaku said to be a son of mythical Manu Vaivasvata. He
is the founder and ancestor of Sun dynasty .
He is reported to have set up his colonies at a number of places and
expanded the sphere of influence of the Aryan tribes by struggles, conquests and colonization. The Ramayana clearly
describes Ikshvaku as the son of Manu.
Ikshvaku was undoutedly one of
the earliest and most important Indo-Aryan
monarchs of India, but he is speculated by some scholars (including Max Müller)
as having been not a descendant of Manu but the chief of a tribe called
Ikshvakus located on the upper reaches of river Indus. He also finds mention in
the Rig-Veda (X.60.4.6), where he is
described ‘as rich and dazzling’ and his
rule is stated to be glorious and full of splendour. The Aryan civilization was
established and spread over the Sapta Sindhu
region by king Ikshvaku. He established the first stable monarchy after
the Deluge, in the early Bronze age probably in the same period the Indus
Valley Civilisation was taking shape.
The Ramayana supports this view when it says clearly that the first
kingdom was established only after the Satya
yuga though the Aryan tribes are said to be dominating the Sapta sindhu
region for over sixty centuries as the
modern researches confirm
Ikshvaku established the rule of
law - a law grounded in grace and justice - developed and heralded a golden age
during which time Arya-vartha, the Aryan homeland, became a paradise on earth.
He is considered one of the wisest, bravest and greatest kings ever. Ikshvaku
was also a contemporary of Persian king Jamsheed and king Ukusi of Sumeria. He
is said to have defeated the materialistic Panis,who were occupying Afghanistan
.Panis later known as Phoenicians were maritime people and business magnates
who always quarrelled and fought with the Indian Aryans, living on the banks of the Indus and that the
latter knew them as Panis.
Professor. L.A.Waddell ( 1854-1938 ) finds
Ikshvaku to be identical with king
Ukusi, the first Sumerian king of the
first Sumerian dynasty of Kish Chronicle, and with king Agushe and dates his
period from 3378 BCE to 3349 BCE . Egyptian king Menes also seems to be ruling at the same time. Modern
consensus dates the era of Menes or the start of the first dynasty between c.
3100–3050 BCE. Dr.Beneditti,
an eminent Italian scholar places the
accession of Ikshvaku in 3197 BCE.
It thus suggests, on the basis of
the comparative study of the ancient
civilizations from Egypt to China, that the parameters of the
recordable historic events of all these nations were evolved almost at the same time sometimes
in the 4th millennium BCE and
not earlier. Thus there is no reason to doubt the historicity of Ikshvaku and
the establishment of Aryan monarchy in India,sometimes in the period 3300 –3100
BCE., on the basis of available evidence ,literary and archaeological. .
Col. James Tod is also of the
opinion that the monarchies of Egypt, China and Assyria were established later
to the Aryan kingdoms of Sun and Moon .
His kingdom, most probably, lay
in the Upper Indus Valley, on both sides of the river Indus or it may be that
he was having a colony to the west of the Indus too, guarded by high mountains
in the region of north –west.
