A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c10.69

c10.69

Allied to the conception of protection as being the supreme duty of the king is the view mentioned in chapter LXIX of the Sāntiparvan which relates to the king's observance of the science of polity (daṇḍanīti) in the fullest measure. In the extract bearing on this point, Bhīṣma undertakes to teach his royal interlocutor what he conceives to be the great benefit accruing from daṇḍanīti to the king as well as the subjects. In the course of this address he states that the king is the cause of time and not *vice versa*. When the king acts wholly according to daṇḍanīti, there arises the Golden Age. When he observes three-quarters of the science, the Silver (Treta) Age comes into existence. The Brazen (Dvāpara) Age arises when the king gives up half of daṇḍanīti and follows the remaining half. Lastly the Iron (Kali) Age emerges when the king gives up the whole of daṇḍanīti, and oppresses his people by means of evil expedients (ayogena). In the concluding lines of the above chapter Bhīṣma repeats that the king is the creator of the four ages, and he observes that the king enjoys a great reward in case of his producing the Golden Age, little reward when he produces the Silver Age and the proper reward for producing the Brazen Age, while for causing the Iron Age he incurs great sin and lives for ever in hell.∗ The above extract, besides stressing the king’s obligation in respect of observance of the science of polity, presents, we think, some additional points of interest. We have, in this case, presented to us in a special sense, an idea known to another teacher who is quoted in chapters XC—XCI of the Sāntiparvan, the idea namely that the king is the creator of the Age-cycle. As in the latter example, it is here used not to advance the king's authority but to impress him with a sense of his responsibility.∗ Another idea involved in the foregoing extract is that the varying nature of the king's rule produces corresponding variations in the social and moral and even physical conditions of the age—a view which is paralleled by that of the sage Utathya as known to us from the quotation in chapter XC of the Śāntiparvan.