State and Government in Ancient India c15.127

c15.127

According to him an ideal minister should be a native of the country, born of high family, influential, well-trained in arts, possessed of foresight, wise, strong in memory, bold, eloquent, skilful, intelligent, possessed of enthusiasm, dingnity and endurance, pure in character, affable, affectionate, firm in loyal devotion, endowed wtih excellent strength, health and bravery, free from procrastination and fickle-mindedness and such defects as excite hatred and enmity.¹ The picture of the ideal minister, according to other writers also, is almost the same.² In actual practice, all these qualities could not be ensured in every minister; it was, therefore, recommended that an effort should be made to make the selection in the light of the ideal. Manu and Kauṭilya (I. 10) lay down that before being appointed to the ministry, the king himself should test him to find out whether he was above the temptation of wealth, wine and women and possessed the minimum qualifications.