War in Ancient India c12.83

c12.83

The *Kural* veṇba runs as follows: ‘Having put one to the fourfold test, dharma, wealth, pleasure and fear, a selection must be made’. The same idea is contained in another *Kural* veṇba 510. This means that before the actual appointments were made, each officer was put to four kinds of rigid tests, i.e., temptations of virtue, wealth, lust and fear. Those who had come out successful from the *dharmopadha* were appointed as judges and commissioners, from the *arthopadha* as treasurers and collectors-general, from the *kāmopadha* as guardians of frontiers, of the harem and amusement parks, from the *bhayopadha* as officers of the royal household. Those who had satisfied all the four tests were chosen as ministers. If one reads these recommendations with the *Kural* veṇbas 518 and 520, one is astonished at their striking similarity.⁵³ According to the *Kural*, again, the two eyes of the king are the spies and a knowledge of the *Dharmaśāstras*.⁵⁴ These confirm our conclusion that Tiruvalluvar was a follower of the Kauṭalya school and based his political theories on the *Arthaśāstra* texts, especially the *Arthaśāstra* of Kauṭalya.