Hindu Administrative Institutions c6.59

c6.59

‘It is *daṇḍa* that rules the subjects, it is *daṇḍa* that protects all. It is *daṇḍa* that keeps awake and guards people when they are asleep and hence the learned style *daṇḍa* itself as *dharma*.’ It will thus appear that the essential requisite for a state as a state is *daṇḍa*. It is the means to realize the end, namely, the propagation of *dharma*. The law-giver goes the length of deifying *daṇḍa* as a goddess with a dark complexion and with red eyes, carrying destruction to avowed sinners, but peace to the innocent. In a country where this goddess, *daṇḍa*, moves about, there the people never experience difficulties. And the king thoroughly enjoys his position.¹ Deification of *daṇḍa* is more elaborately made in the *Śānti Parvan* of the *Mahābhārata*.² The power of *daṇḍa*, and especially the dread of it, is such that even the Devas, Asuras, Gandharvas, Rākshasas, Pathagas, and Uragas, do their duty loyally. Kullūka Bhaṭṭa in his commentary on *verse* 23, chap. viii of Manu quotes the *śruti*³ ‘through fear of Him, Agni burns : through fear glows the sun : through fear Indra and Vayu : Mṛtyu runs the fifth.’ From these it is evident that the ancients realized the truth ‘No *daṇḍa*, no society; no *daṇḍa*, no state.’ State and society exist in and through *daṇḍa*. *Daṇḍa* is the guiding factor for everything.¹