The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c16.s1.t1.9

c16.s1.t1.9

The idea of the fish-like struggle for existence or self-assertion was thus a generally accepted notion in the “floating literature” of Hindûstân. It found an important place in the exclusively political treatises also. It was exploited as early as the latter half of the fourth century B. C. by Kautilya, one of the first, as we have seen, among the historical names in political science. According to him in the *Artha-śâstra*³ the logic of the fish prevails while the state is unformed. “In the absence of the wielder of punishment the powerful swallows the powerless”. And Kâmandaka also, who several centuries later generally follows Kautilya, writes in his *Nîti-sâra*⁴ (Digest of Politics) that in the absence of punishment (*danda*), the destructive or ruinous logic of the fish operates through mutual animosities of the people and leads to the disruption of the world.