The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c13.s1.12

c13.s1.12

Notwithstanding the obvious dilemma presented by Kauṭilya’s conception of the king—detached from worldly interests and yet striving for power—it might still have been possible to develop on this basis a viable supratribal state and a modicum of rationalization. But in order to realize such a set-up, it would be necessary to mobilize and concentrate a substantial part of the resources in the hands of the king, so as to give him a decisive measure of power and independence from his social environment, where otherwise he has to remain only a primus inter pares. The mobilization and administration of resources again requires an equally independent bureaucracy, working with objective methods. Indeed, the second book of the *Arthaśāstra* does deal with such a bureaucracy. But here the formidable difficulties come out clearest. I referred already to Kauṭilya’s somewhat dispirited sayings about the near-impossibility of controlling peculation in the treasury. In fact, the impressive bureaucracy seems more of a machinery for the diffusion of resources than for their pooling and husbanding.