The Mauryan Polity c11.s1.t2.1

c11.s1.t2.1

The ancient Indian conception of law was that it was something superhuman, and something transcendental. A great amount of sacredness was attached to it, not only by the people but also by the ruler with the result that law became the king of kings,¹ the kṣatra of the kṣatra. According to the Vedic tradition, which was handed down in unbroken succession, there is nothing higher than dharma, the observance of which will tend to universal moral welfare, and righteousness of a general kind. If we are to accept the definition of the term by the philosopher Kaṇāda that dharma is the source of material welfare in this world and spiritual welfare in the other,² then it is easy to realise the full import attached to it especially by the reigning sovereigns of the land. If the state emerged from a well-established society for the welfare of that society, and if the state represented the common will of that society, by upholding principles which tended to the common good and the common welfare, (the *yogakṣema* of the Hindu literature),¹ then necessarily that institution which we call state, must take cognisance of the social order, peculiar to that society, and function in such a way that that social order is maintained intact, and that an orderly progress is the ultimate result.