DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53502#0011
Intro duetion 3
of a camp; array of troops, battle with infantry, cavalry,
chariots, and elephants; the choice of a battle-field;
encouragement of the army by opposite speeches and
promise of rewards; battle of intrigue; employment of
spies; destruction of the supply, stores, and granaries of
the enemy; siege and capture of a fortress; magic prac-
tices; pacifying a conquered country. Internal policy
is governed by the necessity to provide against the law
of the fish (MatsyanySya), i. e., the violence of the
stronger attacking the weaker, as the stronger fish will
prey upon the feebler? The king as protector of the
weak has the task of enforcing the maintenance of
peace and order by the exercise of his regal power.
In external policy, on the other hand, there is no such
check on individual energy, every king trying to be-
come the lord of a circle of states. The war of all
against all, which is the natural consequence of this
condiiion of things, can only be brought to a successful
close by a conqueror obtaining the universal empire of
the world and enjoying the earth unopposed. A tem-
porary termination of hostilities may be effected by
the vanquished king concluding peace with the van-
quisher, on condition of paying him a large sum of
money, or ceding a part of his territory, or the whole
of his territory except the capital, and of giving, him
hostages of high rank.
The general tendency of the A. is thoroughly rea-
listic and wordly, as opposed to the vague idealism
and strictly religious principles of the Dharma^stra.,
with which it has much in common, otherwise. Thus
the A. (I, 7; IX, 7) declares wealth or gam (artha) to
1. B. K. Sarkar, loc. cit, 193.
of a camp; array of troops, battle with infantry, cavalry,
chariots, and elephants; the choice of a battle-field;
encouragement of the army by opposite speeches and
promise of rewards; battle of intrigue; employment of
spies; destruction of the supply, stores, and granaries of
the enemy; siege and capture of a fortress; magic prac-
tices; pacifying a conquered country. Internal policy
is governed by the necessity to provide against the law
of the fish (MatsyanySya), i. e., the violence of the
stronger attacking the weaker, as the stronger fish will
prey upon the feebler? The king as protector of the
weak has the task of enforcing the maintenance of
peace and order by the exercise of his regal power.
In external policy, on the other hand, there is no such
check on individual energy, every king trying to be-
come the lord of a circle of states. The war of all
against all, which is the natural consequence of this
condiiion of things, can only be brought to a successful
close by a conqueror obtaining the universal empire of
the world and enjoying the earth unopposed. A tem-
porary termination of hostilities may be effected by
the vanquished king concluding peace with the van-
quisher, on condition of paying him a large sum of
money, or ceding a part of his territory, or the whole
of his territory except the capital, and of giving, him
hostages of high rank.
The general tendency of the A. is thoroughly rea-
listic and wordly, as opposed to the vague idealism
and strictly religious principles of the Dharma^stra.,
with which it has much in common, otherwise. Thus
the A. (I, 7; IX, 7) declares wealth or gam (artha) to
1. B. K. Sarkar, loc. cit, 193.