Alexander and Ashoka had more things in common than the first letter of their names. They were ambitious, ruthless, driven, cruel, murderous, egotistical, cunning and manipulative. They were also bestowed the title ‘the Great’ post-facto by historians and continue to be revered by generations of readers of school history textbooks. Historians have been clearly miserly with their bestowal of the ‘great’ title for reasons that appear to neither fair nor logical.
Consider India’s very long history. How many rulers have been given this rare ‘award’ by historians? Court chroniclers obviously do not count. Besides Ashoka the Great, we have, well, Akbar the Great; Kanishka is subjective. Apart from them, nary a ruler in the over two millennia have achieved that distinction. Not Chandragupta-Maurya or Vikramaditya-or Harshavardhana or even his bete noire Pulakeshin I, or Rajaraja or Rajendra Chola…
The West has been significantly luckier in ‘the Great’ stakes. From Alfred the Great to Stefan cel Mare (of Romania), Constantine the Great of Byzantium to Canute the Great of England and Denmark, Peter the Great and Frederick the Great of Russia, even France’s Louis XIV and more. However, Persia, with its prodigious recorded history has been magnanimously honoured with three-Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes; and Egypt one-Ramses II.
As for women rulers, historians-overwhelmingly male till recently-have been even more stingy. The only name that usually pops up is Russia’s Catherine the Great, maybe because she displayed all the characteristics attributed above to Alexander and Ashoka. Tamar the Great of Georgia, who ruled from 1184 to 1213 is a less known second name. But Britain’s Elizabeth I, despite her long and successful reign was denied a ‘great’ suffix.
Egypt’s feisty queen Hatshepsut, who ruled in her own right, not just as a regent or as a daughter or wife, also did not make the cut. But perhaps because of her serendipitous association with Caesar and Antony, historians acknowledged that Cleopatra VII-who ruled Egypt some 1400 years after Hatshepsut-used the title ‘the great one’. But that still fell short of any historians giving her a ‘great’ prefix. And India’s women rulers have fared even worse.
Read More at https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/blogs/SilkStalkings/whats-so-great-about-the-greats/
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