History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.537.3

v4.c62.537.3

But the proximate goal of the State in India was to create such conditions and environments as would enable all men to live in peace and happiness, to pursue their avocations, to follow their own customs and usages and their 'svadharma', to enjoy without interference the fruits of their labour and the property acquired by them. The king was the divinely provided instrument to create the conditions of peace, order and happiness. If the king impartially exercises the power of *daṇḍa* over all, whether his own son or enemy, in proportion to their guilt, he secures this world and the next for himself and the people; the king's scrupulous performance of his own duties leads him and his people to heaven. The task of the State (or the king who represented the State) was to repress by the threat and use of force any violation of the rights of personal freedom and property, to enforce the practice of people's own traditional customs and usages and to take serious care of virtues and dharma. These were the sentiments of Kauṭilya himself (III. 1.).³¹⁶ At the very threshold of his work he remarks 'therefore the king should not allow people to swerve from or fail in their duties (dharma); for whoever holds fast by his dharma, observes the rules laid down for *āryas* and those of castes and āśramas (the stages of life) will be happy in this world and the next.