Hindu Administrative Institutions c6.s2.15

c6.s2.15

The state of *arājaka* is elaborately described in chapter lxvii of the *Ayodhya Kāṇḍa* of the *Rāmāyaṇa*. ‘It is the prime cause of all ruin to the state. There will be no seasonal rain, no fruitful crops, no obedient son or wife, no private property, no truth, no assembly, no beautiful parks or sacred places of pilgrimage, no performance of *yajñas*, no theatrical amusements, no festivals or festivities, no learned lawyers, no pleasure-drive with family in swift going vehicles, no peace, no sleep for the rich even with doors shut, no learning or practice of arms, no caravan traders, no self-controlled men enjoying solitude and bliss, no yogakshema (obtaining that which could not be got and protecting what has been acquired, according to Govindarāja), no army conquering hostile enemies, no temple-worship, and no enjoyments of any sort. The kingdom without a king resembles a river without water, a forest without pasture and cattle without a cow-herd. In such a territory nothing is one’s own. The people swallow one another like fishes.¹ Thus both the epics and the Dharmaśāstras like Manu, and the Purāṇas like the Mātsyapurāṇa are quite at one as regards the nature of an arājaka territory. That this notion continued to prevail even centuries after is demonstrated from the election to the throne of Gopāla of the Pāla dynasty of Bengal. It is said that the people elected Gopāla to free themselves from a state of anarchy, or mātsya nyāya. This Gopāla was the father of Dharmapāla who lived in the ninth century A.D.²