Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c43.103

c43.103

The members of 'the mantra-holding' (mantra-grāha) or 'the holders of the reins' of state (II, p 18 n.) body were to be, according to the Mahā-Bhārata, 'at least three' and preferably five.¹ Kauṭilya prescribes it to be 'three or four' (p. 28). The original view probably was that such holder-of-mantra should be only one as recognised by the king. This was the view of that severe theorist, Kaṇika Bhāradvāja² (Artha-Śāstra, p. 27), and it seems to have been the view of the Mānava Dharma Code (VII. 58). Viśālāksha condemned the system of one-minister-cabinet (Artha-Śāstra, p. 27), and the Rāmāyaṇa does the same, according to which (II. 100 18) it should "neither be of one nor too many." The number three and upwards became fixed, as evidenced by the Mahā-Bhārata and the quotations in *Nītivākyāmṛita*.³ The uneven number found preference for the same reason as given by Mitra Miśra in the case of uneven jury: सङ्ख्यावैषम्यन्तु भूयोऽल्पविरोघे भूयसां स्यात् 'uneven number is to provide, against difference in opinion, for a majority.'⁴