Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c8.s4.11

c8.s4.11

The ministers were to be appointed from a sort of governing class, nobility of birth, office, and intellect, small in numbers. An excellent intellectual grounding, a high sense of duty, a blameless private life and a sound judgment, are laid down as their primary qualifications. A certain amount of popularity was wisely deemed an additional recommendation. There were those who, like Bhâradwâja, advised the king to select ministers from among his old fellow-students, but Viśâlâkṣa demurred to it as ultimately destructive of royal prestige. Parâśara emphasised faithfulness as the first qualification, but Piśuna pointed out that capacity, intellectual and administrative, was the essential desideratum. Kauṇapadanta held that high birth implied a grounding in traditional political wisdom, but Vâtayâdhi explained that new men versed in the "Science of Politics" were safer. The son of Bâhudanti, however, decried theoretical knowledge, and insisted on birth and capacity. Kautalya recognised the force of all these arguments; but he himself held capacity to be the highest qualification. But he would bar foreigners from chief offices and confine them to natives of the soil.²