The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t22.3

c11.t22.3

We need not enumerate the duties of government stated in the *nîti-sâstras*. Let us note only the functions of the historic state-systems that may be gathered from the inscriptions and contemporary reports. The economic development of the country was undertaken by the Maurya Gupta, Kashmirian, Tamil, and Ceylonese governments. Their care for irrigation¹ in different parts of the empire is a solid testimony to their recognition of the secular interests of the state. The construction of magnificent roads was another function along the same line.² The beautifying of cities and measures for street-cleaning, sanitation, etc were important items of state business in Chola territories.³ The promotion of aesthetic as well as "productive" arts and crafts was a normal function of almost every Hindu state. The encouragement or "protection" of skilled workmen, the steady maintenance of shipbuilders and naval architects, and state employment of miners and other industrial artisans were among the duties of the Maurya civil service. Shipbuilding⁴ and manufacture of arms and ammunitions were in reality crown monopolies. Wood-cutting, carpentry and smithery works came naturally therefore under state control. All governments undertook to lay out parks and grounds for recreation and pastime. Pharmaceutical gardens were treated as public necessities.⁴ Palaces and public halls were likewise some of the "useful magnificences" that no state could dispense with. The Pândya rulers (c 100—300 A. C.) were patrons of *pariṣats* or academies of literature.⁵ The Guptas⁶ and the Pâlas⁷ considered universities among important charges on the imperial exchequer. Temples and *vihâras* or monasteries were built at government expense both by the Vardhana and the Châlukya emperors of the seventh century,⁸ indeed by all ruling houses. Not the conventional religion and morality of the time alone found an asylum in these institutions. The financial authorities must have regarded them as schools of higher learning as well. From the cultural standpoint these were at once the art-galleries and museums of the people. And as resorts for the relief of the sick, the distressed and the poor the ostensibly religious buildings discharged an important economic function like the Catholic institutions of mediaeval Europe. Add to all this the minimum functions of every state as state, viz. the protection of person and property, or national defense by army and navy as well as internal policing by adequate executive and judicial staff. The extent of these minimum functions can be realized from the fact that in the Maurya Empire the appropriations on this head absorbed 25 per cent of the total revenues.¹