The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c14.135

c14.135

In the Arthaśāstra, the ministers are drawn from a sort of governing class, something like a nobility of birth, office and intellect, small in numbers. An excellent intellectual grounding, a blameless private life, a sound judgment, a high sense of duty and a certain amount of popularity are deemed essential qualifications. A discussion recorded by Kauṭalya, though avowedly theoretical, throws a little light on actual conditions. Bhâradvâja 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 loyalty as the foremost 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 Vâtavyâdhi explained that new men versed in the science of politics were safer. Bâhudantiputra, however, decried theoretical knowledge and laid emphasis on birth and capacity. Kauṭalya himself recognised the force of all these arguments but himself pronounced all-round capacity to be the highest qualification. He would, however, bar foreigners from chief offices and confine them to natives of the soil.¹