A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c8.s3.55

c8.s3.55

² † In consequence of this association the Hindu science of polity was identified at a later date with the institution of the monarchic State. Thus the Mahābhārata (Śāntiparvan Ch. LVIII 3) applies the significant designation of writers of treatises on the kingly science (rājaśāstrapraṇetāraḥ) to seven specified authors of the Arthaśāstra. In the same work Daṇḍanīti is so thoroughly identified with the monarchic State that Bhīṣma (Ibid LIX 5-136), replying to a query about the origin of kingship, begins by describing the creation of the science by the god Brahmā. Kāmandaka (I 7-8) uses the epithte ‘rājavidyā ’ as a synonym for the science of polity. In the Śukranītisāra (IV 3. 56) Arthaśāstra is explicitly defined as involving the instruction of kings in good behaviour : srutismṛityavirodhena rājavrittādiśāsanam suyuktyārthārjanam yatra hyarthaśāstram taduchyate.