The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c16.s1.t1.45

c16.s1.t1.45

A ruler *in office* personifies this *danda*, but the ruler *as a person* is subject to it as every other individual is. Hence the inevitable dilemma of kingship in the Hindu theory of the state. It is by wielding this terrible weapon that the king is to preside over and regulate the state. He is the *danda-dhara* i. e. holder or bearer of the instrument of sovereignty, but he is himself liable to be scorched by it, may be one of its first victims for he is not “infallible”.