The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c15.70

c15.70

Quite consistently with the position of the king as a *dâsa* or servant is the right of petition by the subjects postulated in Hindu thought. The king, says Sukra, must personally inspect every year the villages, cities and districts. “He must investigate which subjects have been pleased and which oppressed by the staff of officers and deliberate upon matters brought forward by the people.”⁵ Altogether, then, the state of the Sukra school of politics is a people’s *râjya* under royal supervision. The majesty of the people is their political slogan. Such ideas about the dignity of the *prakriti* or *droits de l’homme* bear apt comparison with those of Azo (1150—1230), the Italian jurist, who in spite of the autocratic *milieu* of the Middle Ages wrote on the sovereignty of the *populus* or *universitas*.⁶