Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c11.13

c11.13

words; "Henceforth thou shalt punish those of us who deserve punishment, and thou shalt recompense those of us who deserve recompense, and we will give thee a portion of the produce of our fields and of the fruits we gather." The Chief was a regular King. From his receiving the homages of many, he was called 'Honoured by many, or Mahâsammata,' and as he was lord over the fields and kept them from harm, he received the name of 'Protector of the fields or Kṣatriya'; and as he was a righteous man and wise, and one who brought happiness to mankind with the law, he was called 'King or Râjâ.'¹ Sometime after appeared caste, based on distinctions of occupation. Noticing the origin of property in the first building of houses, the author remarks that the lawfulness or otherwise of the division of houses depends on the decision of the king "who is the lord of the law."² With the exception of a few passages, a similar account is given in the third volume of the Dulva.³ Here divine interposition is conspicuous by its absence; reason and expediency alone determine the formation of the state. Government derives its validity from consent. It exists to fulfil certain definite needs. It is difficult to ascertain whether the idea of the pact originated with the Buddhists or they borrowed it from previous Brahmanic thinkers and merely stripped it of its supernatural elements. The latter hypothesis is the more probable. But it is clear that the idea owes its full development to Buddhist influence. It lost ground in the age of the Smṛitis and Purâṇas but it did not altogether die out. A Hindî