Chakravarti (Sanskrit term)

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A chakravarti (Sanskrit: चक्रवर्तिन्, IAST: Cakravartin) is an ideal (or idealized) universal ruler in the historiography and religion of India. The concept is present in Indian subcontinent cultural traditions, narrative myths, and lore. There are three types of chakravarti: chakravala chakravarti, an emperor who rules over all four of the continents (i.e., a universal monarch); dvipa chakravarti, a ruler who governs only one of those continents; and pradesha chakravarti, a monarch who leads the people of only a part of a continent, the equivalent of a local king. Dvipa chakravarti is particularly one who rules the entire Indian subcontinent (as in the case of the Mauryan Empire). The concept of Chakravartin may have developed by the time of the early Maurya kings, in the 4th to 3rd century BCE, such as Emperor Ashoka, and it is mentioned in the Arthashastra (formerly considered to be a Maurya-period text but now re-dated as later). The word cakra-vartin- is a bahuvrīhi compound word,...

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