A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c11.s1.32

c11.s1.32

Rules like the above might have been justified by Kāmandaka, as they were by his master, merely from the point of view of the interests of the society or of the State. It is, however, characteristic of the author that he seeks in the course of the chapters just cited to justify his statecraft on the higher ground of morality. Thus while advising the king to suppress the disturbers of the public peace, he writes, "Kings that were almost like sages had recourse to righteous slaughter; hence the king is not afflicted with sin by slaying the wicked in the interests of righteousness."† Again, in his chapter relating to unrighteous fighting the author winds up by saying that the slaying of the foe by treachery does not involve the obstruction of righteousness, and he quotes the example of the Kuru hero Aśvatthāmā who slew the Pāṇḍava host during night-time when it was absorbed in deep slumber.‡