Hindu Administrative Institutions c7.s2.t2.75

c7.s2.t2.75

Every ambitious conquering monarch was actuated by the legitimate aim of a *digvijaya*, a victorious progress through the country.¹ Evidence, literary and epigraphical, is not wanting to corroborate these statements as embodying a common feeling or general sentiment. What is patriotism if it is not the love of the native land! Here it was sung ages ago and it is still a common place among the people that² mother and motherland are greater than heaven itself. What a grand conception for a nation bent upon the ideals of *mokṣa* or heaven. The fact was the ideal of *mokṣa* was only one of the four *puruṣārthas*, and that, the ultimate. *Mokṣa* comes to those who have fulfilled three *puruṣārthas*,—*dharma*, *artha*, and *kāma*, properly and rightly. The conception of motherland being equal to the mother herself is a lofty ideal for a nation's progress. In the face of this testimony could we maintain that the ancient Hindus were devoid of patriotism?