A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c10.22

c10.22

What, then, in the opinion of these thinkers, is the end of the Art of Government, as we may render more or less roughly the concepts of rājadharma and daṇḍanīti. It is, we think, a striking illustration of the importance of the intrusive Arthaśāstra element in their thought that the authors take over and amplify the necessarily one-sided estimate of the science furnished by the secular teachers. As we have seen in another place, Kauṭilya conceives the Arthaśāstra to fulfil the threefold end of human existence.∗ Now Bhīṣma in chapter LIX of the Śāntiparvan sums up his elaborate description of Brahmā's original work on daṇḍanīti by saying that it treated the four ends of life, namely, virtue, wealth, desire and salvation.† In another place, speaking on the great benefit accruing from daṇḍanīti, Bhīṣma says that this science, when properly applied by the king, directs the four classes towards righteousness and weans them from unrighteousness. When the four classes observe their respective duties, Bhīṣma goes on, and the established usage is not violated, when security springs from daṇḍanīti and the people are free from fear, the three (sic) classes seek their welfare according to the prescribed rule, and thence ensues the happiness of the people. Continuing his argument, the hero states in language of bold hyperbole, that the four ages of the world arise according as the king exercises daṇḍanīti in a full or more or less partial measure or finally abandons it altogether. Daṇḍanīti, he says in conclusion, fixes the limits of duties and is the established usage that has for its end the welfare of the people; when properly applied, it is, as it were, the mother and the father.‡