Hindu Administrative Institutions c8.s1.3

c8.s1.3

It is a general rule that the prince must follow the king, his father, in all acts and deeds. But Kauṭalya says there is a limitation even here. He need not be guided by the advice of the monarch if it would cost his life or would rouse the fiery spirit of the general masses of the people.² In these two cases it would not be disobedience to the rules of *dharma*. Under the second plea Lakṣmaṇa asks Rāma to disobey Daśaratha’s orders of forest life for fourteen years, for all the citizens not excluding women and children were greatly perturbed at the king’s orders to his eldest son;³ and they continued grief-stricken till sometime after Rāma had gone away to the forest. Vālmīki exhibits the Crown Prince Rāma as the idol of the people since he never passed the limits of *dharma*. It would not have been *adharma*¹ for Rāma to disobey even King Daśaratha in the face of strong public opinion in his favour. Rāma actually wanted to set up a higher ideal of a Kṣatriya than by following the rules of *kṣatriya-dharma* like a worldly prince.²