A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c9.41

c9.41

Kauṭilya urges upon the king as one of his first tasks the necessity of securing to his side, by various methods of diplomacy and force, the friendly and hostile factions within as well as outside his kingdom. In this connection he mentions four classes of people, (namely, the angry, the greedy, the timorous, and the haughty), as being the instruments of the king's enemies, and he states how spies with shaven head or braided hair may win over these classes to the king's side by appealing to that quality which is the leading characteristic of each class.† In another place Kauṭilya urges the king to protect his own person, especially from his sons and wives.‡ The rules under this head, however tedious they might appear, are justified by the author on the very intelligible ground that the king, by protecting his own person, becomes capable of saving the State from those near him as well as from foreign kings.§