A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c10.10

c10.10

† For the evidence, vide Bühler and Kirste, *Indian Studies*, Vol. 2 pp. 4-27 (especially pp. 24-26). With regard to the Sāntiparvan with which we are specially concerned it may be added that Bhīṣma's discourse on 'rājadharma' is introduced in such a fashion as to suggest that it was meant by the author to embody the standard list of the king's duties. Consider for example the historical setting of the scene in which Bhīṣma, stretched upon his bed of arrows, is made to utter these discourses as his parting message to the assembled princes headed by Yudhiṣṭhira. Consider again how Bhīṣma is singled out in the immediately preceding chapters by the sages Vyāsa (Śāntiparvan XXXVII 1-16) and Nārada (Ibid LIV 7-10) and above all by the lord Kriṣṇa (Ibid LIV 34-35) as the fittest person to communicate this message on the ground of his unrivalled knowledge of the whole circle of