War in Ancient India c11.t1.58

c11.t1.58

This policy also met another situation. It may be that sometimes the local chiefs or leaders joined hands with foreigners and rose against the king. In such cases Kauṭalya recommends the policy of sāma and dāna towards the discontented subjects, so that they might give up their unholy alliance with the aliens. After ensuring peace at home, the conqueror is asked to apply the policy of bheda and daṇḍa towards the foreigner. In this recommendation and the equally statesmanlike principle that the internal danger must be suppressed first before the external danger should be met, Kauṭalya shows himself a keen politician, and anticipates many of our modern statesmen. This recommendation of a practical statesman is supported by the views of law-givers like Manu.⁸⁰ But Manu does not attach much value either to the policy of gifts or the other diplomatic means like bheda. For does he not say that Paṇḍits or those who are versed in such technical literature, hold the opinion that from the point of view of progress of the kingdom only sāma and daṇḍa are the best?⁸¹ Thus the policy of gifts, though effective in several cases, is assigned a secondary place in the Mānavadharmaśāstra. The Śivatattvaratnākara mentions as many as sixteen kinds of dāna or gift,⁸² thus improving on the few kinds of gifts mentioned by the Arthaśāstra. Under the category come political marriage alliances. To cite an instance, Vaugandharāyaṇa, the minister of Udayana, arranged a matrimonial alliance between his king and the sister of the Magadha king Darśaka, which prevented Darśaka’s support to the Vatsa country and strengthened Udayana’s hands.⁸³ Instances of such marriages can be multiplied.⁸⁴ To mention only a few, we have the marriage alliance of Vākāṭakas and Guptas, of the Cholas and Cheras, the Cholas and Chālukyas, of the Licchavis and the Guptas. In his discussion on gifts, Kauṭalya uses the term abhava which is explained in the Śrīmūlam commentary as अर्थाद् दानं शत्रुभ्यो भयप्रसङ्ग meaning the gift awarded in the shape of wealth to avert the fear caused by the enemy. Otherthe Roman world, and the most important events of the reign of Constantine are thus represented as the immediate consequences of his conversion. But the historian, who must be content with the evidence of the times, will not be easily persuaded that the zeal of Constantine was not stimulated by the hope of political advantage, or that the conversion of the empire was not the result of a long and gradual process of change.