4. How did Kings claim social …

The kings claimed high status in ancient times by the following ways:—

1. Divine King- There were many rulers whose social origin were obscure, thus to raise their social status many like Kushanas began to portray themselves as divine. For example there is a statue of Kanishka in a temple and it is also displayed in te coins they produced. They also adopteped grandiose title like " Devaputra" or sons of god.

2. The rulers also tried to claimed higher status by deriving their revenuesfrom long distance trades. They just did not depend on agriculture but made ample use of the booming long distance trade to higher their status.

3. Some rulers like Guptas encircled themselves with the powerful samantas, the more powerful samantas were under the more higher status for the ruler. But samantas were also a kingmaker.

5. Other ways of claiming higher status were commisioning poet and other to write Prashastis about them, thus immortalising themselves through the words of poet.