A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c10.72

c10.72

We may mention, in the next place, an extract which, although occurring in a separate book of the Mahābhārata, is most relevant to the subject of our present enquiry in as much as it inculcates, as far as we are aware, for the second time in the order of historical sequence, the right of tyrannicide.† In chapter LXI of the Anuśāsanaparvan Bhīṣma speaking on the Law of charity (dānadharma) observes, "The king who tells his people that he is their protector but does not actually protect them should be slain by his combined subjects like a mad dog afflicted with the rabies".‡