The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c21.105

c21.105

The ideals of the Hindu state were certainly high. Its weak point was the despotic character of the hereditary monarchy. Sooner or later the sceptre was bound to fall into incapable, wicked or oppressive hands. The tyranny revealed in Kalhaṇa’s Rājatarangiṇī makes the flesh creep. The high-handedness of officials, particularly of those in the lowest rung, was not easy to restrain. Nevertheless there were certain checks which operated to mitigate the evils inseparable from the system. Custom could not be lightly disregarded. Following the earlier writers Śukra defines Deśadharma as “custom which may or may not owe its origin to Śruti but is always followed by the people in different climes.”¹ The local practices could be violated only at the risk of trouble. Religion which always had a mighty hold on ancient India was another tempering, stabilising and conservative influence in politics. The idea of Dharma was deeply imbedded in the Hindu mind. Dharma, said the Mahābhārata, upheld all creatures.² Even earlier, the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad had laid down that Dharma had been created by Brahman, that Dharma was the king of kings and that there was nothing higher than Dharma.³ The idea, in fact, had appeared with the Vedas. In the Vedic hymns, as Max Müller puts it, ṛita from meaning