Public Administration in Ancient India c17.26

c17.26

Alliances were made either on equal terms (samasandhi) or on unequal terms (hīnasandhi). The first kind was an alliance properly so called, because in this the positions of the two parties were equal, and the benefit was mutual. The second was a subordinate alliance, and from it one of the parties often derived more benefit than the other. The duties of a subordinate ally, according to the Agni Purāṇa, were to appease public feeling, to collect allies and auxiliaries, to help the paramount sovereign in other ways, and to enable him to distinguish friends from disguised enemies.