A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c9.31

c9.31

This anarchical condition forms in Kauṭilya, as in the Buddhist theory, the immediate prelude to the creation of kingship by popular election. While however this involves in the latter case the formulation of an express contract, in Kauṭilya the contract is tacit and has to be understood from the manner of the king's selection. We may note in passing that the designation of the first king in the Kauṭilyan theory is the surest index of its distinctly Brahminical character, since this is held to be no other than Manu, the son of the Sun, the individual so well known in the Brahminical mythology as the progenitor of the present race of human beings. The last point that has to be mentioned in this connection is that while the Buddhist author is wholly silent about the implications of his theory as fixing the respective rights and duties of the king and his subjects, Kauṭilya suffers from no such omissions. Yet Kauṭilya, while committed to the view of justifying the king's authority, brings out with great clearness the principle involved in one of the Dharmasūtra texts,∗ namely that the king is an official receiving the revenue as his fee for the service of protection, and he carries the idea to the point that the king is spiritually responsible for the faithful discharge of his functions. It is the necessary condition of this relation consisting in the payment of the stipulated taxes by the people, which Kauṭilya boldly forges in the above passage into a weapon in support of the king’s jurisdiction over his subjects.∗