A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c9.30

c9.30

¹ \* Mātsyanyāya which is mentioned in the above and in another (Kaut. p. 9) extract as the technical designation of the evil state of nature preceding the creation of kingship is, we think, as here used, a new importation into the vocabulary of Hindu political thought. Prof. D. R. Bhandarkar (op. cit., pp. 116, 119) translates it as the proverb (or the practice) of the greater fish swallowing the smaller—an interpretation that conveys the literal meaning of the term in question. In its figurative sense it refers to the anarchic condition in which Might counts for Right. We quote the following extracts to throw light upon the meaning of the term : yathā prabalā matsyāh nirbalānstān nāśayanti tatha arājake amukadeśe prabalā janāh nirbalān janān nāśayantīti nyāyārthah (Raghunāthavarman, quoted, Col. G. A. Jacob, Laukikanyāyāñjali, Part II pp. 57-58); atra balavantah durbalān hinsyuriti mātsyanyāya eva syādityuktam (Kūlluka's commentary on Manusamhitā VII 20); mātsyo nyāyah balavatā yadabalagrasanam (Śaṅkarāryya's commentary on Kāmandaka V 40).