Instructions for Kings

The early Irish and Indian sources afford similar depictions of ideal ruling, based not only on the topics of cosmos, social order and justice universally connected with kingship, but also on the moral themes. On the basis of extensive textual evidence, these visions of regal power are taken as idealised, rather than historical, constructs. The sources, that are newly edited and translated, include Hiberno-Latin and vernacular Irish wisdom-texts, as well as the Buddhist canonical sutras in Pali, discussed in the light of the early Indian political theory and the royal inscriptions of Ashoka. It is examined how the compilers of the texts used ideological structures already in place, inherited from the earlier traditions. The way the semantics, syntax and subject-matter of the compilations had been adjusted is scrutinised, the ethical dimension to be seen as a watershed between the old and the new visions of power, epitomised in the dichotomy of the 'right' and the 'righteous'.