Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c8.s5.43

c8.s5.43

Kautalya is concerned primarily with the internal arrangements of a state, but the science of government which he had inherited flourished in the days of small states, and devoted an important chapter to inter-state relationships. He could not omit to reflect on the subject. Here, as elsewhere, political thought was based on historic and contemporary experience. Causes of war were always present. At the time of which we are speaking, a considerable part of the country was still covered with forests. The clearing of forests on the boundaries of two or more states often led to complications. The colonisation which followed, and which the state itself often undertook to organise, was another fruitful source of misunderstandings. Irrigation from the long rivers, which traversed more than one state, presented its own difficulties. Then there were all the petty insults, real or imaginary, to the honour and dignity of sovereigns. Frontiers themselves are a difficulty. The interpretation of treaties brings its own troubles. Mere aggression, which public usage had sanctioned in vain expectation of political unity, made confusion worse confounded.