History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.31

v4.c62.31

The Kauṭilīya also discloses how arthaśāstra writers did not shrink from giving advice which, to say the least, was most cruel, selfish and immoral. For example, in the section called 'guarding the prince' (Kauṭ. I. 17) the views of several teachers are set out. Bhāradvāja says that princes are of the nature of crabs eating up their parent; so it is better to finish them in secret when they have no love for their father. Viśālākṣa abhorred this advice as cruel, as unsanctioned murder and as destructive of the seed of kṣatriyas and recommended that it was better to keep them confined in a single spot. Vātavyādhi recommended that princes should be made addicted to sensual excesses. Kauṭ. disapproves of this as living death (for the princes), recommends proper care before conception and after birth and instruction in dharma. In Kauṭ. V. 6 Bhāradvāja is quoted as saying that when the king is on his death-bed, the minister may set up the kinsmen of the king and the principal princes against one another, that whoever attacks should be killed by inciting the people against him, or having secretly punished the kinsmen and chief princes and brought them under control, the minister should himself take possession of the kingdom. Kauṭilya does not approve of this. But even he advises (XIV Aupaniṣadika) the employment of poison, herbs and incantations against those who are irreligious or wicked. In I. 18 even Kauṭ. does not shrink from advising that secret emissaries (of the reigning king) may kill an abandoned prince with weapons and poison and in V. 1 Kauṭ. remarks that, when a king cannot openly put down the principal courtiers or chiefs who are dangerous to the kingdom, he may inflict punishment on them in secret or may induce the brother of the officer to be punished to attack the latter by promising to give him the position and wealth of the officer and then destroy that attacker with weapons or poison saying that he was guilty of fratricide. In V. 2 for replenishing a depleted treasury Kauṭilya coolly asks the king to deprive the temples in the kingdom of their wealth through the superintendent of religious endowments.