Public Administration in Ancient India c4.10

c4.10

The Rāmāyana and the Mahābhārata are not historical works in the modern sense of the term; but they give us a graphic and fairly accurate picture of the life of the Āryas in what is known as the Heroic Period of Indian history. The stories found in these Epics are largely based on real occurrences, and although the main themes of the Epics are the wars of the heroes, both of these great works present us with glimpses of the political condition of early Hindu society and of the relations between the rulers and the ruled, while not a few chapters of the Mahābhārata are specially devoted to an exposition of the duties of kings and of the rights and obligations of subjects.¹