Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c6.2

c6.2

It is the Mahâbhârata which gives the first clear, comprehensive and, on the whole, consistent account of Hindu political thought. That great epic, the longest poem in existence, is the work of many poets separated by centuries, ultimately synthesised and edited by an industrious hand. The work existed nearly as we know it in the second century before Christ. The framework of the story of the great civil war between the Kurus and the Pândavas includes numberless episodes which are interspersed with discourses on religion, ethics and all else in life. It reaches its high water-mark in the Sânti-parva, one of the greatest productions of the Hindu genius. At a critical stage of the struggle, Bhîṣma, called the grandfather, —the Grand Old Man of India for all time—was mortally wounded. But he was not destined to give up the ghost until the sun reached a specific position in the heavens in six months. The rival commanders cried a halt and the hostile kinsmen gathered round their ancestor's death-bed of arrows to receive the last words of wisdom. The wanting sage Nârada counselled Yudhiṣṭhira to question Bhîṣma on the duties of man. The old man's discourse ranged over the whole field of human existence, and, *inter alia*, treated of the science and art of government. Bhîṣma or rather the editor refers to several previous thinkers and professes to