A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c8.s3.125

c8.s3.125

Turning to the political ideas of our author, it will, we think, be enough to mention two examples to illustrate their nature. Daṇḍanīti, he says at the beginning of his book (I 3), is the only science (vidyā). Elsewhere (III 75-78) he observes that Daṇḍanīti should be studied by the people of India (Bhāratas) past present and future, as well as by the four castes. By virtue of Daṇḍanīti, he goes on, the holy Sun is king, and Wind and all the gods, and all creatures. The main idea embodied in the latter passage is, we think, that Daṇḍanīti is the basis of authority and the security of universal existence—a conception which might be properly matched with the description of the function of punishment (daṇḍa) that occurs in the early Arthaśāstra. The former passage, by excluding all sciences other than Daṇḍanīti, would seem to bring the author into line with the extreme school of Śukra of which we have spoken in the early part of this section.