A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c9.27.2

c9.27.2

One spy should speak, "This kingly class is heard to be endowed with all qualities, but no quality of it is seen which causes the folk in country and town to be burdened with fines and punishments." Another spy should contradict the first and those who concur with the latter by speaking in the following way. People overcome by anarchy (mātsyanyāyābhibhūtāḥ) selected Manu, the son of the Sun, as their king and they fixed one-sixth of the grain, one-tenth of the merchandise as well as gold, to be the king's due (bhāgadheya). Supported by this, the kings become capable of promoting the security and prosperity of their subjects, so that they take away the sins of the latter in the event of their failure to inflict just punishments and levy just taxes. Kings in fact promote the security and prosperity of their subjects. Hence even the hermits living in the forest offer the king one-sixth of the grain gleaned by them, stating that it is a tax payable to the person who protects them. The kings who are the visible dispensers of slights and favours occupy the position of the gods Indra and Yama. He who slights them is afflicted with divine punishment. Therefore the kings should not be slighted. Thus the lowly persons should be contradicted.∗ This extract, we think, is an important landmark in the evolution of the Hindu theories of kingship.