State and Government in Ancient India c14.s2.8

c14.s2.8

In the course of time, however, as the administration became more and more developed and life more and more complex, it began to be felt that the state should have powers to make its own rules and regulations. The rules in the old Dharmaśāstra and Nītiśāstra works, it was realised, had not provided for all possible contingencies, and changes were necessary both in the interest of the state and the subjects. The *Manusmṛiti* invests the king with the power to pass administrative orders which were to be obeyed by the subjects.² These orders were, however, to be in consonance with the Śāstra and tradition.³ Yājñavalkya also maintains⁴ that king’s orders were to be enforced by the law courts. *Śukranīti* (I. 292-311) shows that these orders mostly related to well-established laws and customs and exhorted the subjects to respect the elders, to cultivate concord in family, not to cause interference in boundaries, not to use false weights or make false accusations, not to commit misappropriation of property, not to give asylum to theives, not to fabricate false evidence or documents, etc. Sometimes they referred to the proper discharge of duty by government servants and often warned the subjects against talking about the king’s vices or divulging his line of policy.