Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c4.15

c4.15

This purpose of the theory of government, coupled with the Hindu habit of synthesis and the all-embracing idea of the state, joined politics to other branches of human activity. The law which the government was to enforce is stated by political writers with varying degrees of fulness. The administration must have an idea and concrete projects of economic welfare. Agriculture, irrigation, famines, mining, communications, all come in for their share of treatment in works on "policy." In fact the term Arthaśāstra which was applied to politics is quite as applicable to economics. Diplomacy was an integral part of political theory. Fortification was mentioned in the same breath with sovereign and minister as one of the component elements of the State. The army was another such factor and political works become, in certain portions, treatises on military equipment, tactics and strategy. Espionage is treated with an astonishing fulness of detail. It is needless to mention that topics like public finance partake of the very essence of governmental theory. Not less intimate was the connection of political theory with the dominant feature of Indian social organisation.