The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c16.s1.t1.6

c16.s1.t1.6

This Hobbesian "law of beasts and birds" or the *Naturprozess* of Gumplowicz is the logic (*nyâya*) of the fish (*matsya*) in India. Should there be no ruler to wield punishment on earth, says the *Mahâbhârata*¹ (*c* B. C. 600—A. C. 200), "the strong would devour the weak like fishes in water. It is related that in days of yore people were ruined through sovereignlessness, devouring one another like the stronger fishes preying upon the feebler". In the *Manu Samhitâ*² likewise we are told that "the strong would devour the weak like fishes" if there be a virtual reversion to the non-state (if, for example, the king is not vigilant in meting out punishments to those that should be punished). The *Râmâyaṇa*¹ also describes the non-state region as one in which “people ever devour one another like fishes”. And a few details about the conditions in this non-state are furnished in the *Matsya-Purâṇa*.² “The child, the old, the sick, the ascetic, the priest, the woman and the widow would be preyed upon”, as we read, “according to the logic of the fish” (should *danda* or punishment fail to be operative at the proper time).