The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c13.s1.9

c13.s1.9

It is this situation, where the king is no more than a primus inter pares, that the *Arthśāstra* wants to remedy. The ideal Kauṭilyan king has an authority and a legitimation not derived from the community but all his own, for here the king's basic qualification is not his sacrality or divinity, but the *indriyajaya*, the victory over the senses,¹⁴ which sets him free from worldly interests. In this way, he becomes the worthy counterpart of the ideal brahmin, who is equally detached from worldly concerns.