Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c18.26

c18.26

§ 95. Hindu commentators failing to recognise the significance of the word *Vairājya* (‘kinglessness’) have fallen into the error of rendering it as ‘*shining condition*.’ But there cannot be the slightest doubt as to the constitutional interpretation given here. Other terms of the same passage of the Aitareya do bear constitutional interpretation; and if any additional evidence were necessary, I would refer to the term as used by Kauṭilya who treats it as a form of government and rejects it as a bad form.¹ He, like his contemporary Greek thinkers, held democracy in contempt. According to him