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Public Administration in Ancient India c6: Chapter III: The Territory of the State

Public Administration in Ancient India c6

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English

Chapter III: The Territory of the State

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IN the last chapter we discussed the social environment of the State; in the present chapter we shall briefly describe its physical surroundings.

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Territory is the material basis of the State, and its importance was fully understood in Ancient India. Chānakya discusses in full the excellent qualities of a territory. In his opinion a territory should be extensive; self-supporting; capable of supporting outsiders (besides inhabitants) in times of distress; capable of defending itself and of repelling enemies; powerful enough to guard itself against neighbouring kings; free from rocky, marshy, desert, and uneven tracts; devoid of robbers, wild beasts, and jungles; beautiful; containing fertile fields, mines, valuable products, elephant forests, and pasture lands; strong; containing hidden passages; full of cattle; not dependent upon natural rainfall for the supply of water; possessed of land-routes as well as waterways; rich in many kinds of commercial products; capable of bearing the burden of taxation; inhabited by industrious agriculturists; full of children and of persons belonging to the inferior orders; having a loyal and honest population.¹ So also Manu says, “Let him (the King) settle in a country which is open and has a dry climate, where grain is abundant, which is chiefly (inhabited) by Āryas, not subject to epidemic diseases (or similar troubles), and pleasant, where the vassals are obedient and his own (people easily) find their livelihood.”²

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¹ Arthaśāstra, Bk. I. ch. 6.

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² VII. 69.

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The chief points which are important in considering the relation of a territory to the State are its size, climate, and nature of the soil. These three constitute what may be called the natural environment of a State, and it will not perhaps be out of place to say a few words here in regard to each of them. Throughout the long period of Indian history the size of the territory of a State varied with the circumstances. Some Kings ruled over only a few square miles of territory, while others controlled extensive empires. When the Āryas first settled in the Punjab, each tribe occupied a small extent of territory. The nature of the country, intersected as it was by large rivers and mountain spurs, favoured the establishment of a large number of separate and independent communities. But with the growth of the national forces, the size of the territory tended to grow. The extent of territory had also an important bearing on the constitution of the government. So long as the territory was small, the form of administration was more or less democratic; but as the size of the territory grew large, it was found necessary to adopt a system in which political powers were concentrated in the hands of the Head of the State assisted by a Council of Ministers and a trained bureaucracy. The strength of a large State became manifest to the people when they saw how easily Chandragupta, with his vast resources, succeeded in inflicting a defeat on Seleukos Nikator, as contrasted with the ease with which Alexander had only a few years before devastated and conquered the small States of the Punjab.

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But as extensive territories have their obvious advantages, they have their drawbacks. In the hands of a weak ruler, great size makes the State cumbrous and helpless, and is a source of impotence rather than of strength. Readers of Indian history know that a large territory could be controlled only by an Asoka or a Vikramāditya, and that as soon as the guiding hand of the strong and capable ruler was withdrawn, the fabric of the large State always fell into pieces.

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Climate and the nature of the soil determine in a very large measure the prosperity or adversity of a country as well as the physical and moral characteristics of its people. The effects produced by these factors in the ancient Punjab are thus described by Megasthenes:

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“ The inhabitants having abundant means of subsistence exceed in consequence the ordinary stature, and are distinguished by their proud bearing. They are also found to be well skilled in the arts, as might be expected of men who inhale a pure air and drink the very finest water. And while the soil bears on its surface all kinds of fruits which are known to cultivation, it has also underground numerous veins of all sorts of metals, for it contains much gold and silver, and copper and iron in no small quantity, and even tin and other metals, which are employed in making articles of use and ornament, as well as the implements and accoutrements of war. . . . In addition to cereals, there grows throughout India much millet, which is kept well watered by the profusion of river-streams, and much pulse of different sorts, and rice also, and what is called bosphorum, as well as many other plants useful for food, of which most grow spontaneously. . . . It is accordingly affirmed that famine has never visited India, and that there has never been a great scarcity in the supply of nourishing food.”

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We thus find that the ample material resources yielded by the land in the shape of crops and minerals enabled the people to develop a healthy civilisation. The rigour of the climate of the Punjab, combined with the moderately fertile quality of the soil, made the early settlers a race of valiant warriors and industrious agriculturists, and fostered the growth of a strong and manly population. But as the Āryas spread to the other parts of India, they met with a climate which was exceedingly mild and a soil which yielded rich harvests without requiring much labour; and these facts, while, on the one hand, they favoured intellectual activity, on the other, disposed the people to indolence and love of ease.

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