Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c6.83

c6.83

Chastisement is the only guarantee for Religion, Righteousness, Modesty, Profit and Universal Happiness. But for it, no maiden will marry, nobody will milk a cow, nobody will study the Vedas. It is the root of everything.¹ Behind all this philosophy and mythology of coercion lies the conviction that man is essentially low, vile and selfish and can be kept, only with difficulty and harshness, on the straight path. There are, indeed, some who desist from sin through fear of Yama’s rod, of the next world or of society but there are others whom only the king’s rod keeps from devouring one another. The Mahâbhârata is never tired of repeating that if the rod of chastisement did not "protect" the people, they would sink into the darkness of hell. Fear, then, was the predominant motive to obedience. Such, at any rate, was the existing state of things. There was, indeed, a time, long long ago, when men were truthful, little disposed to wrath or wrangling and when they could be governed easily. It was then enough to cry "fie" by way of punishment. Next came a period when harsh speech of censure was enough. The ages of fines and forfeitures followed. But the present day necessitated even the punishment of death. A robber, for example, was outside the pale of society.² The severity of punishment and of government keeps pace with the deterioration of human nature.