Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

SR No.: 001609
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 566
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Story, Literature, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

Page 121

YASASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
"Unequalled in wisdom, he undertakes the responsibility of executing a task when the king demands action, and acts like the Wishing gem, in conformity with justice, when the king is in need of funds. These are said to be the two divine factors governing the loyalty of ministers to their master, and not, o king, the expulsion of the great nor the extinction of the realm."
102
Those who are in constant fear of their lives (that is, fear the king), and have no motives of sordid gain in deliberations, are alone fit to be ministers of kings, and not those who are like blood-sucking leeches (Book IV, p. 155):
प्रतिक्षणं संशयितायुषो ये न येष्वपेक्षास्ति च कार्यवादे । त एव मन्त्रेऽधिकृता नृपाणां न ये जलौकासमवृत्तयश्च ॥ Further, a minister should exercise independence of judgment in expressing his views, and his aim should not merely be to please the king. Somadeva remarks (Ibid.):
प्रशास्ति यः श्रोतृवशेन धर्मं नृपेच्छया यो निगृणाति कार्यम् । अकल्पकामोपचयेन वैद्यस्त्रयस्त एते कालिकालपादा || "He who preaches religion according to the inclinations of his hearers, he who sets forth a project in conformity with the wishes of the king, and the physician who lives by ministering to the desires of his patients: these three are the pillars of the Kali Age!"
Ministers are, however, faced with a dilemma. If they followed the wishes of the king, the people might be ruined; while if they acted according to the wishes of the people, they might ruin their own position. Yet it is incumbent on ministers to speak the truth: this might only inolve their own ruin, but false counsel might bring about the ruin of the state, the king, and themselves as well (Book IV, pp. 155-6):
प्रजाविलोपो नृपतीच्छया स्यात्प्रजेच्छया चाचरिते स्वनाशः । न मन्त्रिणां वेधविधायिनीवत्सुखं सदैवोभयतः समस्ति ॥ यतो यथार्थं वदतां नराणामात्मक्षयः स्यात्परमेक एव । राष्ट्रस्य राज्ञो ध्रुवमात्मनश्च मिथ्योपदेशस्तु करोति नाशम् ॥ Somadeva speaks a good deal about ministerial corruption. The report of the spy in Book III is designed to show to what length the corruption of a single minister, placed in charge of a province, can possibly go; and it also gives occasion to a large number of verses, attributed to diverse poets, on the supposed villainy of ministers in general.' The author of Yasastilaka seems to regard the proper control and supervision of the activities of the ministers by the king as the first and foremost requisite in the administration of a state. He opines that the evil ways of ministers cease only when the king is strict in determining issues of justice and
1 See Chap. VII.