A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c9.86

c9.86

Turning to another aspect of the Kauṭilyan art of government, it has to be observed that the outstanding feature of the author's thought is his preference for the monarchic State. Nevertheless there is at least one passage in which he treats parenthetically the conditions of clan-republics (kulas) and predicates of them the twofold merit of invincibility and permanence. There, after mentioning the dangers threatening the king from the royal princes and the measures to be adopted against these, Kauṭilya says, "Sovereignty may likewise belong to a clan, for a republic consisting of clans [as the political unit] (kulasaṅgha) is hard to conquer, and being free from the danger of anarchy enjoys a permanent existence on earth."\‡ This tribute, coming as it does from the arch-apostle of the monarchic cult that Kauṭilya is, shows him not to be a blind advocate of monarchical rule.