A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c8.s3.78.1

c8.s3.78.1

Let us illustrate the above remarks with the help of concrete examples. In Chapter LXXII of the Śāntiparvan Bhīṣma describes what purports to be the discourse of the Wind-god to a king called Purūravas. There is nothing improbable in the god figuring in the list of Arthaśāstra teachers, since the Mahābhārata elsewhere mentions the gods Indra and Viśālākṣa (Śiva) as the authors of treatises on the Art of Government (rājaśāstra).n The gods, the men, the Fathers, the demi-gods, the serpents and the demons, says the god of Wind in the course of the above address, live by sacrifices; but in a country without a king, there can be no sacrifice. The gods and the manes, he continues, live by the offering made in the sacrifice. The security and the increase of this virtue (dharma) depends upon the king alone. He who confers immunity from fear, concludes the sage, is alone entitled to high merit, for there is no gift existing in the three worlds equal to the gift of life. The king is the god Indra, he is Yama, he is virtue personified (dharma), he assumes different forms, he sustains all.∗ In this extract, it will be observed, the argument based upon the value of the king's office as ensuring the condition of bare existence is complete by itself. Nevertheless the idea of the king's divinity based upon his identification with three specific deities is thrown in at the end, obviously to further strengthen the principle of authority.