History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.2.1

v4.c62.2.1

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);