History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.2
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.2
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Rājadharma has been a subject of discussion in works on dharmaśāstra from very ancient times. The Āp. Dh. S. II. 9.25.1 says 'The general and special *dharmas* of all varṇas have been explained: but now we shall declare the dharmas of a king in particular'. Āp. then states that the king should cause to be built a capital and a palace, the gates of which both should face the south; that the palace should be in the heart of the capital; that in front of the capital there was to be a hall called 'āmantraṇa' (hall of invitation); that to the south of the town there was to be an assembly house with doors on the north and south. Āp. requires that in the king's realm no brāhmaṇa should suffer hunger, sickness, cold or heat; Āp. gives regulations about the assembly house and about persons who were to be allowed to engage in gambling; he prescribes that (the exercise in) arms, dancing, singing and music should not go on anywhere except in the houses of the king's servants, that the king was to see that there was no danger from thieves in villages and forests, that the king should donate fields and money to brāhmaṇas according to their worth without detriment to his servants, that the king who meets death in recovering the property of brāhmaṇas and other warlike persons who meet death in fighting for a similar worthy cause reap the merit of a sacrifice (i. e. reach heaven as reward);
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that the king should appoint in towns and villages officers and their subordinates, who are pure and truthful, for the protection of the subjects against thieves and who are to be made to make good what is stolen; that they are to collect lawful taxes for the king from the people except from learned brāhmaṇas, women of all castes, minors, students staying with teachers and ascetics fulfilling the rules of their order, śūdras who do menial work for the higher castes (such as washing their feet), persons that are blind, deaf or dumb. Āp. then lays down punishments for adultery and rape, for slander and defamation, for manslaughter, for theft and appropriation of another's land, for breach of contract to cultivate the field of another, for a herdsman leaving his herd or negligently allowing it to perish. He states that if the king does not punish the guilty he incurs sin, that in disputes judges should be men of learning, clever and fulfilling their duties, that witnesses were to tell the truth and were to be punished if they be untruthful. It will be noticed how Āp. briefly covers the whole field of rājadharma. In the Śāntiparva of the Mahābhārata rājadharma is dealt with at great length in chapters 56-130 and to some extent in 131-172. The Manusmṛti also states at the beginning of chap. VII (1) that it will expound rājadharmas.
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That great literary activity on the science and art of government went on for many centuries before the Christian era follows from several considerations. The Anuśāsanaparva (chap. 39.8) speaks of the śāstras composed by Bṛhaspati and Uśanas. The Śāntiparva (58.1-3) names as expounders of *rājaśāstra* Bṛhaspati, Bharadvāja, Gauraśiras, Kāvya, Mahendra, Manu Prācetasa and Viśālākṣa. Śāntiparva (102.31-32) opposes the view of Śambara to that of ācāryas¹. The Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya mentions five schools (viz. those of the Mānavas, the Bārhaspatyas, the Auśanasas, the Pārāśaras and the Āmbhīyas), seven individual teachers (V. 5, and I. 8) only once (viz. Bāhudantiputra, Dīrgha Cārāyaṇa, Ghoṭamukha, Kaṇiṅka Bhāradvāja, Kātyāyana, Kiñjalka, Piśunaputra,) and several times mentions the views of Bhāradvāja, Kauṇapadanta, Parāśara, Piśuna, Vātavyādhi, Viśālākṣa. Kauṭilya also cites at least 53 times the views of ācāryas, almost in every case for dissent. Śānti 103.44 refers to a Bhāṣya on *rājaśāstra*. Is it possible to see in this a reference to one out of the bhāṣyakāras indicated in the verse appended at the end of the Kauṭilīya or to the Kauṭilīya itself? Another fact indicative of the systematization of the science of government is that in the Mahābhārata, the Rāmāyaṇa, Manu and Kauṭilya ideas expressed by numbers had already been stereotyped long before those works were written viz.
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such as saptāṅga rājya (State with seven constituent elements), ṣāḍguṇya (the six ways of policy viz. alliance, declaration of war &c.), three *śaktis*, the four upāyas (sāma, dāna, bheda, daṇḍa), aṣṭavarga, and pañcavarga (Manu VII. 155), the 18 and 15 tīrthas (Sabhāparva 5.38)². For detailed information about the Rājasāstras of Bṛhaspati, Uśanas, Bhāradvāja culled from the Mahābhārata and other ancient works *vide* my paper on them in the Journal of the University of Bombay, vol. XI part 2 pp. 73-83, 1942.