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Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c5: Chapter II. Vedic Literature

Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c5

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Chapter II. Vedic Literature

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The beginnings of Indian social, as of religious speculation lie in Vedic literature—the four Vedas, the Brāhmaṇas and the Upaniṣads. The Ṛigveda, the oldest document extant, consists of hymns to many gods composed probably in the third and second millenniums before Christ. Mostly from the Ṛigveda are derived the Sāmaveda and the Yajurveda though the latter comprises some prose formulas of its own. Much later in date is the Atharvaveda which incorporates a good deal of Dravidian belief and ritual and which, in its whole outlook, is very different from the Ṛigveda. Primarily religious and devotional, the Vedas nevertheless reflect the whole life of the age and afford a glimpse into the political institutions and ideas of the early Indo-Aryans. The sacrificial ceremonial which occupies a large space in the Vedas is elaborated with an almost incredible minuteness of detail in the prose works, the Brāhmaṇas, attached to each Veda. Since ritual had entwined itself with the whole of human existence and activity, the Brāhmaṇas throw some light on the social organisation, law and politics of the age. The Upaniṣads inquire into the nature of the Divinity but the stories which illustrate the theme incidentally refer to mundane affairs. It is, then, from these sources that the earliest phase of Hindu political thought has to be reconstructed. Nothing can compensate for the absence of political treatises as such but scattered references have the advantage of presenting every idea in the general intellectual perspective and social milieu.

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of gifts by gods. Since sacrifices are essential to the safety and success of monarchs, every king must have a Priest. In fact, in religious matters the priest is the *alter ego* of the king. Rāṣṭragopa or protector of the realm is the epithet applied to him in the Ṛigveda. The high priest is half the Kṣatriya; he is indispensable to the success of royal enterprise. Along with his wife and son, he is the three-fold sacred fire for the king. If propitiated, he blesses the king with dignity, valour and dominion and ultimately secures him heavenly grace. If he is displeased, he hurls ruin and destruction on the realm.¹ It is remarkable that these claims stop short of direct control of the government. The Brāhmaṇas formed a caste but the caste had no organisation, no regulating machinery of its own. It had no means and, therefore, no ambition to supplant the government or reduce it to a servile position. On the other hand, many passages in Vedic literature emphatically claim divine sanction for the kingship, that is, for what we call the government and the state. The king derives his authority from the godhead; he is the representative of the Supreme Creator. It must be remembered that the early Indo-Aryan tribal polity comprised a popular assembly but the increase in the size of the territorial units and, above all, the prevalence of warfare tended to concentrate political power into the hands of the monarch. The monarchy is the predominant type of government in Indian history. The early speculators perceived the true cause of its origin. We are told that "the gods and the demons were fighting......the demons defeated the gods......the gods said, 'It is on account of our having no king that the demons defeat us. Let us make a king. So it be.'" Here in the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa the kingship originates in military necessity and derives its validity from consent. But the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa supplies the divine sanction without which no institution could claim whole-hearted allegiance. Thus we are told that Prajāpati, the creator, imparted lustre and royal powers to Indra who was at first the most inferior among the gods, but who afterwards surpassed all in vigour, strength and valour. Religion figured prominently in the installation of every new king on earth. The act of consecration or coronation was a most momentous one. It drew the consecrated close to the gods. Indeed, it made him one of them. It lifted him above punishment.¹ It consisted of one round of sacrifices, offerings and prayers. Gods like Indra, Soma, Agni and Brihaspati were propitiated. The elements through which the divine essence manifests itself were not forgotten. In the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, for example, prayers are offered to seventeen kinds of water for the bestowal of kingship.² The divine element in the kingship is further brought out in a myth which from its style seems to have arisen during the Vedic period though it is preserved only in the first commentary on the Yājñavalkya Smṛti. It so happened that the benevolence of gods and men failed to bring the mass of men under control. Prajāpati inquired who should do the necessary work and protect the people. The gods replied that they would create a king in the form of a man out of different attributes like beauty, valour, discipline and sacrifice taken from different gods, Soma, Āditya, Indra, Viṣṇu, and Yama.¹

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¹ Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, VIII, 25. Macdonell and Keith, Vedic Index, II, 84, 228, 5. The Purohita secures the fall of rain for the crops, says the Ṛigveda (X, 98). Vedic literature has preserved some record of quarrels which occasionally arose between kings and priests but theory never questions the right of the latter to occupy a transcendent position.

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¹ Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, I, 14. On the strength of this passage Mr. Jayaswal (Hindu Polity, II, p. 5) emphasises the secular character of the Hindu kingship but in the light of other statements, the contention is not borne out. (Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, VIII, 4, 12 ; Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, III, 1, 1, 8 ; V, 4, 4, 7 ; Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa, II, 2, 10, 1-2.)

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² Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, Eggeling, III, pp. 42-129. For the prayers to the waters, pp. 78-79. The coronation mantras in the Vedas are repeated in several Purāṇas and many compilations.

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¹ Commentary on Yājñavalkya, I, 350, G., in the Indian Historical Review, September, 1925, pp. 577-78. The passage in question is in the Brāhmaṇa style and is probably borrowed from one of the numerous Brāhmaṇas which have been lost.

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Here, by the way, is an indication of the evil in man with which gentleness fails to cope and which only firmness can repress. That firmness, in its turn, comes from Divine sources. Firmness, indeed, has always been recognised as one of the prime essentials of government. A hymn in the Atharvaveda thus addresses the new King:—

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“Here be you firm like the mountain and may you not come down. Be you firm here like Indra; remain you here and hold the realm.

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“Firm is the heaven, firm is the earth, firm is the universe, firm are the mountains, let the king of the people be firm.

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“Let the realm be held by you, be made firm by the Rājā Varuṇa, the god Bṛhaspati, Indra and also Agni.

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“Vanquish you firmly, without falling, the enemies, and those behaving like enemies crush you under your feet. All the quarters unanimously honour you and for firmness the assembly here creates you.”²

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² Atharvaveda, VI, 87-8. See also Ṛigveda, X, 173.

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The king must be firm but it was most desirable that all the organs of the body-politic should work in harmony.

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Harmony. The kingly and priestly powers supplement each other and must operate in concord. The Brahma is the conceiver and the Kṣatra is the doer. Religious sentiment assigned the priest a place beside the chiefs of clans or beside the king.

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The popular assemblies which existed during the Vedic period must be in harmony with the king. "May the Samiti and the Sabhā, the two daughters of Prajāpati, concurrently aid me."' The concord of the king and his electors is, indeed, most desirable.²

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² Atharvaveda, III, 4, 6. Also Whitney's translation, pp. 253-4.

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The assembly itself must work in unison. The last hymn of the Rigveda runs as follows:—

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"Assemble, speak together; let your minds be all of one accord,
"As ancient gods unanimously sit down to their appointed share.
"The place is common, common the assembly, common the mind, so be their thoughts united.
"A common purpose do I lay before you and worship with your general oblation.
"One and the same be your resolve, and be your minds of one accord.
"United be the thoughts of all that may happily agree."³

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³ Rigveda, X, 191, 3 (tr. Griffith, 609).

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The king swore at the coronation that if he opposed the people, he might be shorn of all the merit he had accumulated in his life. It is recognised that in the people lay the strength of the king.⁴

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¹ Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, IV, 1, 4, 1–6. (Sacred Books of the East, XXVI, 269–271.) Atharvaveda, 7, 12. By universal consent, the Sabhā was a popular body. Some scholars identify it with the Samiti but from this passage it appears to be a distinct organisation.

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⁴ Atharvaveda, III, 4, 6.

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The primary duty of the king was to protect the people. The Rigveda calls him "the protector of the people." The idea of protection as embodying the supreme function of royalty or government runs through the whole of Indian political speculation. On the other hand, obedience was due to the king. Such is the bond between the rulers and ruled.¹

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¹ Rigveda, III, 43, 5. Vedic Index, II, p. 212.

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Harmony within the realm was strongly insisted on but Hindu thinkers seldom rose to the idea of a harmony among the different states. The country was parcelled out among numerous states, which, in the absence of natural frontiers, were frequently at war with one another. In the Atharvaveda, one of the most cherished ambitions of a king is to conquer enemies. Victory in war is the motive of innumerable prayers. For instance, a long prayer to Arbudi and Nyarbudi for assistance in battle breathes a strong, jingoistic feeling. Here is visible a strain of thought which was to receive elaborate development in a subsequent literature.²

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² Atharvaveda, IV, 22; VI, 38, 39, 97; VIII, 8. (Bloomfield, Hymns of the Atharvaveda, 115--126.) During the Râjasûya ceremony the king "symbolically ascends the quarters of the sky as an indication of his universal rule." (Vedic Index, II, p. 219.)

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Synthesis is of the very essence of philosophy. Social inquiry soon reaches the stage when the need is felt of a universal principle to explain the entire scheme of things. Classical Europe fastened on the Law of Nature as a natural, universal law of reason implanted as a principle of life in all hearts. Early in India there arose a similar idea which runs through the whole of Indian philosophy and literature. In the Rigveda Dharma or Dharman means law or custom.¹ But the word soon gathered wider associations. Dharma is the truth; Dharma is morality. It is austerity, charity and purity. All religious exercise is Dharma. Dharma proceeds from the will of the Creator. It is the Law. It is the sustaining principle. It supports human society. None is above Dharma. It is binding on Brāhmaṇas and Kṣatriyas alike. Relying on Dharma, a weak man rules over stronger ones.

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¹ Macdonell and Keith, Vedic Index, I, 390.

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The notion of Dharma is thus extraordinarily wide and extraordinarily vague. But it is best summarised as the ruling force, the harmonising principle, the foundation of the social order. "There are three branches of the law; sacrifice, study and charity are the first, austerity the second, and to dwell as a Brahmachārī in the house of a tutor, is the third," says the Chhāndogya Upaniṣad. There is a passage in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, in which, after a sacrifice "Varuṇa, the lord of the Law" makes the king "lord of the law; and that truly is the supreme state, when one is lord of the law; for whoever attains to that supreme state, to him they come in law......." But the lordship of the law here means the lordship of justice.²

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² Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, V, 4, 4, 7. Br̥hadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, I, 4, 11—15. Chhāndogya Upaniṣad, 11, 23, 1-2. Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, V, 3, 3, 9. Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XLI, p. 71. Chhāndogya Upaniṣad, Sacred Books of the East, Vol. I, p. 85.

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