Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c15.2

c15.2

From a survey of the political ideas in the vast range of Hindu literature it is clear that political theory in ancient India was essentially a theory of the governmental act. As a whole, it is a theory of the art of government. It touches but incidentally on the deeper problems of political obligation, foundations of the state, or the rights of man. It seeks, above all, to guide the practical course of administration.¹ In the natural order of things it should be studied at every step in the light of the actual working of institutions; its sources should be traced in practice; its conformity to contemporary usage examined and its real influence on events estimated. But this method of treatment is not open to the student. He can rarely dogmatise on the dates of the theoreticians, which, only too often, range over centuries. In the second place, all the literary, epigraphic and numismatic evidence on Ancient Indian History does not suffice to give an idea of the details of Hindu administration at a given epoch. Only such general features are clear as the predominance of the monarchy; occasional disputes about the succession; a number of ministers; a powerful commander-in-chief; several grades of local administration; swarms of spies; royal courts of justice with assessors and ordeals; numerous items of taxation varying from place to place, and time to time; guilds discharging many functions in the north and south alike; incessant diplomatic negotiations and frequent wars between neighbouring states. It is only broad facts of this nature which can be consistently kept in view in the study of governmental theory. But whenever it is possible to check theory by indubitable historical details, such, for instance, as are furnished by Yuan Chwang in the seventh and Alberûnî in the eleventh century, it appears that while the writers faithfully reflect the salient features of administration, they freely improve upon the details, and of course, the ideals are their own. It is rather strange that the attempts which have been recently made to reconstruct the history of administration in ancient India are based largely on just a few theoretical works and thus end in placing the cart before the horse.