A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c7.59

c7.59

We have next to consider a group of ideas concerning the origin of monarchy, which are characteristically treated in the Brāhmaṇas under a metaphorical guise, but which appear to contain the germs of the pointed and compact theories of later times. We shall begin with the short, but remarkable, picture of the condition of anarchy, which occurs in a passage of the Śat. Br. "Whenever there is drought, then the stronger seizes the weaker, for the waters are the law."² This pithy and vivid description of the evil of anarchy was applied by the later writers to their view of the ‘State of Nature’ which preceded the advent of monarchy, and it was crystallized in the celebrated popular maxim called the Mātsyanyāya. Apart from this account of the state of anarchy, the Brāhmaṇas lay down two views of the origin of the divine sovereignty of Indra. The first occurs in a passage of the Taitt. Br. in connection with one of its elaborate accounts of cosmic creation. Prajāpati, it is there declared, made Indra the most inferior among the gods, as the youngest brother in a family is most inferior to the others. Then he sent away Indra to become the king (adhipati) of the gods. Indra, however, after being greeted by the gods, returned to Prajāpati, and begged from him the lustre (haras) belonging to the Sun, which at that time was possessed by Prajāpati. With some reluctance Prajāpati gave up his lustre to Indra, after making it assume the form of a gold ornament (rūkma). Thus Indra became the sovereign (adhipati) among the gods. According to this passage the sovereignty of Indra is derived entirely from the will of the Highest God, since he was originally inferior to all the gods. Further, the symbol of Indra’s divine creation is the lustre in which he is enveloped. The king of the gods, in other words, rules by Divine Right. This view of the origin of the divine monarchy, it will be observed later, is transferred to the human king in the Mahābhārata as well as the Manusaṁhitā.