History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.127
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.127
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Kāmandaka⁷³ (V. 82-83) makes it clear that the subjects require protection against the king's officers, thieves, enemies of the king, royal favourites (like the queen and the princes) and the greed of the king himself. As an extension of the king's duty to protect, the works lay down that it is his duty to support students, learned brāhmaṇas, and sacrificers.⁷⁴ Vide Gaut. X. 9–12, XVIII. 31, Kauṭ. II. 1, Anuśāsana 61. 28–30, Śānti 165. 6–7, Viṣṇudharmasūtra III. 79–80, Manu VII. 82 and 134, Yāj. I. 315 and 323 and III. 44, Matsya 215. 58, Atri 24. The Hindu kings of ancient and medieval India followed this advice with great liberality for centuries and the subject has already been treated in vol. II. pp. 113, 856–864. The functions of Government were not supposed to end with the maintenance of peace and order, but Government must be an instrument of the diffusion of culture. The king is also called upon to support helpless and aged people, the blind, the cripple, lunatics, widows, orphans, those suffering from diseases and calamities, pregnant women by giving them medicines, lodging, food and clothing according to their requirements⁷⁵. Vide Vas. 19. 35–36, Viṣṇudharmasūtra III. 65, Matsya 215. 62, Agni 225. 25, Ādiparva 49. 11, Sabhā 18. 24, Virāṭaparva 18. 24, Śānti 77. 18. The Rājanīti-prakāśa (pp.
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130–131) quotes⁷⁶ the Viṣṇudharmottara requiring the king to honour and protect chaste women (pativratās) and Śaṅkha-Likhita to the effect that even kṣatriyas and vaiśyas who cannot maintain themselves by the methods prescribed by the śāstras for them should approach the king who should help them with the means of livelihood and they should work for the king in the manner laid down for them and that śūdras also should apply their skill and crafts for the benefit of the king when so maintained.⁷⁷ Medhātithi on Manu V. 94 states that when a king supports his subjects in a famine by distributing food from his treasury no question of his being in mourning would come in the way. These provisions for the old, the blind, the widows, orphans and helpless persons and for the relief of unemployed kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras strike one as rather modern in tone. In many modern countries the State has become the means of providing services for the greater part of its subjects, not only armed forces and the police, but social services such as education, public health, medical attendance, insurance against unemployment, old age, widowhood, and orphanage, relief of poverty &c.
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In ancient India, though there were naturally no Acts of Parliament guaranteeing the above services to the subjects, public opinion, the views of eminent writers and the practice of the best kings created an atmosphere in which it was thought that it was imperative for the king representing the State and its resources to encourage learning, to care for the blind, the decrepit, the old and the widowed and to give employment to those who were unemployed. Aśoka constructed hospitals for men and animals (2nd Rock Edict at Kalsi in C. I. I. vol. 1, p. 28), alms-houses, rest houses, watering places, shady trees on the highways and irrigation works, visited and supported the aged (8th Girnar Rock Edict in C. I. I. p. 15). In the 2nd century B. C. Khāravela, emperor of Kaliṅga, declares in his Hāthigumphā Inscription (E. I. vol. XX p. 71 at p. 86) that in the very first year of his reign he constructed embankments round the Khibīra lake in the Kaliṅga capital and renovated all public gardens. Rudradāman in the 2nd century A. D. repaired the Sudarśana lake at great cost from his own treasury without levying fresh taxes or benevolences (*praṇaya*) or forced labour. The Anuśāsanaparva says that good kings should⁷⁸ construct meeting halls, *prapās*, tanks, temples and lodging places for brāhmaṇas. The Matsyapurāṇa 215. 64 remarks that the king should give to those who stay in hermitages food, oil and pots. Vide Āp. Dh. S. II. 2. 4.
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21 and Haradatta thereon as to provision for śūdra guests. It is quite possible that these rules of the texts were not literally followed by all kings, but it is well-known how even legislative enactments are carried out by the subordinate staff in all countries including those of the West. One has only to turn to Dickens' 'Oliver Twist' for some indication of the administration of Poor Laws and work-houses in England about a hundred years ago.