History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.10

v4.c62.10

Though rājadharma was thus an integral part of dharmaśāstra and was one of the most important subjects therein, yet apart from the works on dharmaśāstra separate treatises dealing with rājadharma alone came into existence in very early times. Śāntiparva (chap. 59) states that originally in the Kṛta age there was no king nor punishment, that then *moha* (delusion), greed and lust entered men, that in order to provide against the complete destruction of dharma, Brahmā composed a work in one hundred thousand chapters on dharma, artha, kāma and mokṣa (verses 30 and 79); that part of this work on Nīti (science of government) was abridged by Śaṅkara Viśālākṣa (verse 80, and so it was called Vaiśālākṣa) into 10000 chapters, that Indra studied it and reduced it to 5000 chapters (and the work was called Bāhudantaka, verse 83), that it was compressed into 3000 chapters by Bṛhaspati (and so was called Bārhaspatya) and that Kāvya (Uśanas) reduced the work to 1000 chapters. The Kāmasūtra (I. 5-8) contains a somewhat similar story that Prajāpati composed a work in one hundred thousand chapters, that Manu abridged it as regards dharma, Bṛhaspati as regards *artha* and Nandi abridged in 1000 chapters the science of erotics. The Śāntiparva (69) gives (verses 33-74) a summary of the contents of the work of Brahmā on rājadharma which remarkably agrees with the principal topics of the Kauṭilīya.