Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c7.82

c7.82

**Treatment of Princes.** In connection with the king's personal safety about which the *Arthaśāstra* is so particular, it deals with the problem of the grown-up sons of the king, a "problem of polygamous sovereignty," as F. W. Thomas pithily puts it. It is plainly recognised that 'princes like crabs devour their parents' (*karkaṭasadharmāṇo hi janakabhakshāḥ rājaputrāḥ*) [I. 16]. The question is, Should they live with the king or at a distance? If the latter, should they be in a detention camp (*ekasthānāvarodhaḥ*), or in a frontier fort (*antapāladurge*), or in the fort of a foreign king (*sāmantadurge*). But the last measure will make the foreign king milk him through the calf of his son so as to exploit the situation against him (*vatseneva hi dhenuṁ pitaramasya sāmanto duhyāt*). The last alternative is to place these princes in rustic seclusion with their maternal relations. In any case, they are to be kept under surveillance with spies set on them to betray them, if necessary. Where a king has many sons, he may send some of them away to frontier or foreign States (*pratyantaṁ anyavishayaṁ vā preshayet*), where there is not, nor is to be, an heir-apparent (so that they may have a chance of being adopted and chosen for the throne). The worthy son is to be made Commander-in-chief or the Crown-prince.