History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.37.2

v4.c62.37.2

Sumantu says that th esvāmin has to be preserved by himself, the ministers by showing them proper respect, the people by keeping them contented, the fortified capital by abundance of wealth and grain, the kośa by proper expenditure, daṇḍa by following one's dharma, friends by truthfulness. The authorities are agreed that the ruler is the most important or the first of the seven. Kauṭilya puts the matter very forcibly and realistically when he states that the briefest exposition of the elements of *rājya* is to say that the king is the State²¹. This is really not the same doctrine as that emphasized by Louis XIV of France when he said '*L'Etat c'est moi*'. Kauṭilya makes his position clear (in VIII. 1) by saying that it is the king who appoints ministers and servants and superintendents, who takes measures of relief against calamities befalling the other prakṛtis and measures of prosperity, that it is he who appoints other ministers when those already appointed are under calamities, that if the ruler is prosperous he transmits prosperity to his prakṛtis, that the prakṛtis bear that character which the king has and that hence the ruler occupies the position of a permanent, never-exhausted centre of power. The Śukranītisāra II.4 remarks that if the king begins to act at his sweet will, it leads to calamities, to loss of ministers and of the kingdom. The Śukranītisāra (I.