Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c6.131

c6.131

Governmental Organisation. In the Mahâbhârata the discussion of governmental organisation is bound up with its personnel and personal qualifications. At the top stands the king. He must perforce trust his ministers and people. Universal distrust is worse than death. But he must not rely completely on others. He must personally dispose of the most important transactions of Government. He must constantly take stock of his own resources and those of his enemies. He must wake up early and lay out his programme of the day in the early hours of the morning.¹ His qualifications are commensurate with the transcendent importance of his office. The insistence of the Mahābhārata on knowledge and wisdom in the supreme ruler reminds one of Socrates and Plato. Perfect moral discipline is an equally important requisite. The king must first subdue his own senses and then subdue his foes. "He should have his soul under control." He must be free from avarice, pettiness, irritability and other such vices. He must practise thirty-six virtues such as kindness, faith, honesty, temperance in pleasures. He must divide his time judiciously between religion, pleasure and profit.²