The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c13.s1.10

c13.s1.10

It is interesting that the attainment of indriyajaya is said to be based on training in the sciences, first among them *ānvīkṣikī*, methodical inquiry. This means that the unpredictable pulls and pushes of personal relationships that hem in the king and his power of decision should be replaced, not by arbitrary despotism, but by objective methods of reasoning and decision making. What is at stake is no less than the founding of a state transcending the limitations of the tribal clan monarchy or oligarchy.