Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c11.s2.t1.17

c11.s2.t1.17

The work opens with a salutation which is capable of more than one meaning but which most probably refers to the author's teacher who bore a name something like his own. It is significant that the first chapter though devoted to religion and morality, should dispense with the usual divine commemoration and start with homage to a worldly master. It testifies to the process of secularisation that had gone so far in political science. The first aphorism offers a salutation to the state which is the source of religion or morality, wealth or success, enjoyment or happiness. It would delight the heart of a Hegelian to find that a thousand years before the German idealist, the Indian writer extolled the State as the *summum bonum* of human life. Religion itself is defined in an ambiguous manner which the ecclesiastic or the secularist may interpret as he likes. It is the door to success and welfare, whether of this world or of the next,—we are not told. The precepts which follow relate indiscriminately to mundane and spiritual affairs.¹ A r . . 'er of maxims, moral and worldly, applicable to various walks of human life, form a sort of preface to the real science of politics.¹ Then we are told in all seriousness that the real brute on earth is an ignoramous. Knowledge is the prime requisite in affairs. Anarchy is better than the rule of an ignoramous. It will be remembered that the Buddhist works, the epics, Kauṭalya, Purāṇas and the lawgivers alike had descanted on anarchy, as the most terrible of all possible contingencies. Somadeva departs from tradition and prefers absence of government to uninstructed rule. For, he explains, no calamity is so serious, so ruinous, as a perverse king. On the same principle, a prince, howsoever well-born, should not be installed as heir-apparent unless he is otherwise qualified for the great trust. A real king is he who is the repository of all the merits that are extolled by wise men.² Every prince must cultivate the four branches of learning, scriptures, professional knowledge, philosophy and politics. Besides their intrinsic value, they serve to discipline the mind and character. But for this training, a king will perish like a goadless elephant.³ There could be only one substitute for study; that was the society of the elect. Proximity to the waters imparts a certain delicacy to the shade of trees.