History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.388
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.388
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A king endowed with valour has to employ several means (upāyas) to extend his dominions and to keep his hold on his own people. According to the Rāmāyaṇa V. 41. 2-3, Manu VII. 109, Yāj. I. 346, Śukra IV. 1. 27 and others the upāyas are four viz. sāma (conciliation), dāna (giving gifts or presents), bheda (causing dissensions) and daṇḍa (punishment or depriving of property or causing bodily harm).²²¹ In the Hāthīgumphā Inscription, the king Khāravela (latter half of 2nd century B. C.) states that in the 10th year of his reign he sent, following the policy of daṇḍa, sandhi and sāma, an expedition against Bharatvarṣa, conquered that land and obtained jewels and precious things (E. I. vol. XX pp. 79, 88). This shows that the theory of the upāyas must have been evolved several centuries before the Christian era. Some others such as Kām. XVII. 3, Matsya 222. 2, Agnipurāṇa 226. 5-6, Bārhaspatyasūtra V. 1-3, Viṣṇudharmottara II. 146-149 add three more to the above four. Sabhā 5. 21 mentions the number seven and Vanaparva 150. 42 mentions sāma, dāna, bheda, daṇḍa and upekṣā. About the additional three there is some difference of opinion, most holding that the three are māyā, upekṣā and indrajāla (Kām., Agnipurāṇa), while the Bārhaspatyasūtra (V. 263) says they are māyā, upekṣā and vadha and others say they that are māyā, akṣa (dice) and indrajāla (Sarasvatīvilāsa p. 42). Māyā means 'deceitful trick'. The Viṣṇudharmottara II.
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148 gives illustrations, such as tying a firebrand to the tail of a bird that often perches on the enemy's camp to produce the delusion that a meteor (an evil omen) fell down from the sky. Kām. XVII. 54 cites the example of Bhīma's meeting Kīcaka dressed as Draupadī. Kām. (XVII. 51-53) gives other examples of māyā. *Upekṣā* consists in not preventing a person from doing what is unjust or being addicted to some vice or engaging in a fight and is illustrated by king Virāṭa's connivance at the death of Kīcaka (Kām. XVII. 55-57). Indrajāla means 'creating an illusion by means of incantations and other tricks' e. g. creating the illusion before the eyes of the enemy that a vast army is coming to attack them or showing that angels are descending to fight against them or making a shower of blood fall in the enemy's camp etc. (Kām. XVII. 58-59, Viṣṇudharmottara II. 149). About the four well-known *upāyas*, Manu (VII. 108-109) says that for the prosperity of one's kingdom sāma and daṇḍa (punishment) are preferred, but if the king's antagonists do not yield to him by the employment of the first three then he may bring them round by daṇḍa (i. e. fighting and harassing them) and that (VII. 198, 200) daṇḍa is to be employed as the last resort, since victory is not certain. In the Śāntiparva 69. 23 the view of Bṛhaspati is quoted²²² that fighting should always be avoided (as far as possible) and that for securing one's purpose three upāyas (other than fighting) are to be resorted to.
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Bṛhat-Parāśara X p. 280 also says that a wise man should not resort to fighting and that daṇḍa is to be resorted to only when there is no other course left. In Udyoga 132. 29-30 (cr. ed. chap. 130) Kuntī sends a message through Kṛṣṇa to her son : 'begging is forbidden to you nor is agriculture appropriate for you; you are a kṣatriya living by the power of his arms and a protector against injury (kṣatāt trātā). Recover your ancestral share by sāma, dāna, bheda, daṇḍa and naya'. In Udyoga 150 (cr. ed. 148) Kṛṣṇa informs Yudhiṣṭhira how he first employed sāma, then bheda, then dāna (viz. giving up the whole kingdom for five villages) and how only daṇḍa is the proper recourse in the case of the wicked Kauravas. Hopkins, as very often, being obsessed with his ideas of three strata in the Mahābhārata says that three means appear to be the oldest form and four means a later idea. There is hardly any warrant for this opinion as for many others in the same strain (J. A. O. S. vol. XIII. pp. 182-183 n). The Viṣṇudharmottara II. 146 speaks of the four upāyas and states that daṇḍa as regards a foreign state is open (prakāśa) i. e. burning and not-open (aprakāśa i. e. by poison or secret death). The Mit. on Yāj. I. 346 and Kām. XVIII. 1 say the same thing. The Viṣṇudharmasūtra III. 38 prescribes that the four upāyas are to be employed at the proper time and according to the attitudes of the hostile king, friendly king, the *madhyama* and *udāsīna* kings²²³. The Mit. on Yāj. I.
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346 expressly states that the four upāyas are to be employed not only in the affairs between kings but also in the lives of all ordinary people and cites a verse wherein a father or teacher addresses a son or pupil making use of all four means²²⁴. Kām. XVII, Mānasollāsa II.