History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c40.164

v3.c40.164

So far we have described the daily duties of common men, particularly of brāhmaṇas. Manu VII. 145-147, 151-154, 216-226, Yāj. I. 327-333 and Kauṭ. I. 19 dilate upon the daily duties of the king. Kauṭ. divides day and night into eight parts each and states that in the first part of the day the king should take measures for his protection and attend to income and expenditure, in the second he should look into the causes (or disputes) of the people of the cities and villages, in the third he should bathe, study or recite the Veda and take his meals, in the fourth he should receive revenue in gold and appoint (or examine) superintendents; in the fifth he should correspond with the council of ministers, and receive the secret news brought by his spies; in the sixth he may engage in whatever amusements or sports he likes or in deliberation (on state matters); in the seventh he should review elephants, horses, chariots and soldiers; in the eighth he should consider with the help of his commander-in-chief plans of campaigns. When the day ends he should observe the evening prayer; in the first part of the night he should see secret emissaries, in the second part of the night he may bathe, revise his studies and take supper; in the third he should lie down after the burst of trumpets and sleep in the fourth and fifth; in the 6th he should be awakened by the sound of trumpets, he should bring to his mind the dictates of śāstra and the mode of carrying them out; in the seventh he should deliberate and send out secret emissaries; in the eighth he should receive, being accompanied by his sacrificial priests, ācārya and purohita, benedictions and should see his physician, chief cook and astrologer and having circumambulated a cow with her calf and a bull he should go to court. Or the king may divide the parts of day time and night time according to his capacity. Other smṛtikāras differed here and there. Kātyāyana prescribed¹⁹²⁰ that the king should devote the three parts of the day time (divided into eight) after the first part to judicial work and if he cannot personally do it, he should appoint a judge. Yāj. (I. 327–333) mostly follows (though concisely) the routine sketched by Kauṭ. The Manusmṛti also hardly adds anything of importance to what we find in Kauṭ. It is remarkable that in the Daśakumāra-carita (ucchvāsa VIII) the author closely following the words of Kauṭilya as to the engagements of the king during the eight parts of daytime and of night also puts in the mouth of the voluptuous jester Vihārabhadra a parody of Kauṭilya's solemn dicta.¹⁹²¹