The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c13.79

c13.79

But the sceptre is always to be wielded for the sake of virtue and not for the sake of selfish gratification. The king should be the guide and teacher of his subjects.¹ Here is a possible reference to Kaniṣka’s policy. In the Buddhacarita too, Aśvaghoṣa paints Śuddhodana as the mighty and glorious leader of his people.² “He illumined his people on every side, showing them the paths which they were to follow.” Here, too, he emphasises the need of a thorough education for the prince.³ In the Sutrâlaṅkāra, a collection of pious legends of the Jâtaka and Avadâna type, Aśvaghoṣa repeats the same ideas and gives an interesting list of the subjects—literary, military, and conventional—which a prince should study. It includes grammar, writing, rhetoric, eloquence, the Vedas, literature, astronomy, medicine, sacrifices; music and song, playing on the tambourine, playing on the conch, dancing and laughter, computation, chess, dice, the science of precious stones and valuable materials for clothing, silk, sealing, weaving, wax work, strategy, sewing, sculpture, painting, arrangement of garlands, interpretation of dreams, interpretation of the flight of birds, reading horoscopes; the training of elephants, domesticating of horses, carrying the lance, jumping, running and fording a river, archery, rules of battle array, strategy, etc. In another work Vajraśuci, which is attributed, rather doubtfully, to Aśvaghoṣa, caste is attacked on psychological grounds. All human beings are equal “in respect of joy and sorrow, love, insight, manners and ways, death, fear and life.”⁴ Buddhism could never uproot caste but it is probable that under Buddhist regime it had not the same political importance as Brahmanical literature might lead us to suppose.