The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c5.38

c5.38

Of course the division was never watertight, nor could it be. The government could not operate in a vacuum and there had, therefore, to be considerable "leakages." Thus, there were groups that derived a measure of power and influence through their connection with the government and especially through positions in its extensive bureaucracy.³⁴ More important however, the simple fact of India's becoming part of an expanding commercial empire with access to the world market made for the development of another independent resource base—or rather a plurality of small ones—in the hands of groups of landlords, cultivators, and commercial entrepreneurs.³⁵ Such groups easily outgrew the reduced circumstances of the "little kingdom," and even though they were in no position to compete directly with the government, their demands on the center were hard to ignore. The always precarious balance of the dual dispensation became more and more threatened and eventually had to be completely overhauled.