State and Government in Ancient India c10.11

c10.11

Vedic literature does not enable us to get any idea of what were the contemporary notions about this topic; we, however, begin to get welcome light from *c.* 4th century B.C., when the political thought had become fairly developed. Both Kauṭilya (VI, 1) and Manu (IX. 294-7) held that the state was not a loose assemblage of parts, each having its own interests and moving at its own will; it was characterised by an organic unity. The king, the ministry, the territory, the resources, the forts, the military forces and the allies constitute, according to these writers, the seven constituents of the state.⁴ Later writers like Kāmandaka (I. 10) and Śukra (I, 122-4) regard this as a self-evident truth, and epigraphs also often describe how the kingdoms acquired by the heroes, whom they eulogise, possessed all the seven constituents.¹