A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c13.19

c13.19

In developing the principles limiting the arbitrary exercise of the king's authority, the Hindu thinkers occasionally throw out principles and maxims which might be and have been taken to signify the idea of popular sovereignty. Of the former kind is the plea advanced in two passages of the Śāntiparvan in favour of the people's right to tyrannicide. Less conclusive, since it does not contemplate the whole people as participating in the right in question, is Śūkra's advocacy of the deposition of unworthy rulers. We may also mention in this connection, in accordance with the current opinion on this subject, the characteristic Hindu view of the relation of taxation to protection. To the latter class, that of maxims, belongs Śukra's description of the king as the servant of the people by Brahmā's ordination, to which we may add the Buddhist Āryadeva's designation of the king as the servant of the multitude. Granting the validity of these arguments it may, we think, still be doubted whether the Hindu authors arrived at the true idea of popular sovereignty. In