State and Government in Ancient India c8.s2.8

c8.s2.8

It is also but natural that in about the 7th century B. C. the science of politics should have begun to develop. The country was studded with small kingdoms and the advisers of kings, who were sages and scholars of mature judgement, were naturally expected to discuss problems of administration with them. It is interesting to note that in the Śāntiparvan of the *Mahābhārata*, while answering to some of the questions of Yudhishṭhira, Bhīshma does not give his own opinion, but suggests it by referring to the dialogues between kings and sages of hoary antiquity, who had discussed similar problems. While discussing the divinity of the king, Bhīshma refers to a dialogue between Māndhātā and Indra (chap 65); while emphasising the importance of Daṇḍa, he draws attention to a dialogue between king Vasuhoma and Māndhātā, (chapters 68, 122); while exhorting the king to be righteous, Bhīshma quotes from a dialogue between Yauvanāśva and Māndhātā (chapter 90); while emphasising the importance of the priest, he draws attention to a dialogue between king Aila and Kāśyapa (chaps 73); while warning a king against depletion of treasury, he referes to a dialogue between sage Kālakavṛiksha and Kośala king (chaps. 82, 164); while referring to the problems of the republic, he quotes from a dialogue between Kṛishṇa and Nārada (chap. 81). It is quite obvious that these dialogues must not have been hanging in the air or in oral traditions only; some of them must have formed part of books on political science. The science of polity must have had a pretty number of books by about the 7th or the 6th century B.C.