History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.114.1

v4.c62.114.1

Kauṭilya (I. 6) emphasizes that control of the organs of sense is the cause of (proficiency in) vidyās and discipline should be attempted by giving up the six enemical tendencies viz. lust, hot temper, greed, vanity (*māna*), haughtiness or insolence (*mada*), overjoy. He says that (the whole purpose or insistence of) all śāstras is the restraint of the senses, that even a supreme ruler of the whole earth up to its four borders whose senses are not under control will at once perish and cites two examples on each of these six tendencies, viz. Dāṇḍakya Bhoja who attempted to rape a brāhmaṇa girl through lust and perished with his kingdom and kinsmen and Karāla king of Videha; Janamejaya (perished) who attacked brāhmaṇas through hot temper and Tālajaṅgha who did so against the Bhṛgus; Aila who exacted through greed excessive taxes from persons of the four varṇas and Ajabindu, the king of Sauvīra; Rāvaṇa who did not restore another's wife through his conceit and Duryodhana who did not give even a part from his kingdom; Dambhodbhava who despised all beings through his insolence and Arjuna of the Haihaya dynasty; Vātāpi through overjoy when he attacked Agastya and also the oligarchy of the Vṛṣṇis when they attacked Dvaipāyana⁶⁵. These six evil tendencies are called *śatru-ṣaḍ-varga* or *ari-ṣaḍvarga*. Kauṭilya adds that by the conquest of these six evil tendencies Jāmadagnya (Paraśurāma) and Ambarīṣa enjoyed the earth for a long time. Kām. (I. 55–58) and Śukra. I.