A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c12.s2.48

c12.s2.48

When we proceed to examine the next class of works that falls within the limits of this chapter, we cannot fail to be struck with a sense of disappointment. The commentary of the distinguished scholar Mādhava on the Smriti work of Parāśara represents during this period the tradition of the canonical scholiasts, just as the Nītimayūkha of Nīlakaṇṭha and the Rājanītiprakāśa of Mitramiśra may be held to be the representatives of the literature on polity (Nīti). These authors, however, present few theories of politics properly so called, and none marked by original thinking. Beginning with Mādhava we find that he conceives the king to be an incarnation of God, and connects this belief with the king’s fulfilment of his elementary duty of protection. He writes, “As the divine incarnation in the form of Rāma and others came into existence for punishing the mighty Rāvaṇa and others like him, so the divine incarnation in the form of the king (rājāvatāra) is born for the purpose of punishing lowly beings like thieves and the rest.”¹ In another place Mādhava mentions in justification of the king’s right of jurisdiction the old Brahminical doctrine of the king’s divine creation out of the essences of the gods. He says, “In as much as the king by virtue of his being created from the essences of the Moon, Indra and other gods, is competent to decide suits like the non-payment of debts, he should try the same.”²