Instructions for kings

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