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to warriors in particular, it becomes possible to frame another hypothesis, viz. that it is because of its 'class character' that this idea is not attested in texts older than the Manusmṛti: It belonged to a social stratum other than that which has almost exclusively produced and transmitted the older literature. And the two models of explanation for the coexistence of divergent, or even mutually exclusive ideas (cf. the end of § 4.2) can be combined. The idea expressed in M. 7.94 and 95 is older than the strictly individualistic karma theory, but it also belonged to a particular group of people, and this fact is responsible for its comparatively late, and sporadic, presence in brahmanical literature.
The idea expressed in the two verses is not only clear-cut and catchy, but also rather simple: To cheat one's «provider (bhartṛ), that is, in Kull.'s words, the person who makes one prosper (poṣaṇakarty), out of the quid pro quo due to him cannot but have the consequence of the loss of one's own, or part of one's own, property; and in the case of a warrior and in the situation as is a battle it is, as we have seen, an obvious conclusion that the only suitable property is the effect of his good deeds accumulated for the next world which can be forfeited by him; and that this is conceived of as their passing over to the master is equally convincing, for it is after all he who suffers wrong. Since the gravity of the offence calls for a correspondingly severe punishment, or since the admonitory goal is thus more certainly reached, it is understandable that the consequences are said to include the opposite process, too, viz. that the master discharges, as it were, his own demerit on his disloyal servant; in any case, the idea is thus symmetrically developed and rounded off.
This is an idea which, I think, easily impresses itself on one's mind and to which it is therefore not at all farfetched to ascribe
83. Among the meanings given for the root pus when transitive, and poșayati, in the dictionaries it is most probably that of feeding, maintaining which is the correct one as regards the central idea about the relation be tween bharty and warrior (cf. § 4.5.2 as well as the expression bhartṛpinda in fn. 71). On the other hand, the range of meanings is such that it allows even for an overaccentuation of the role of the master, so as to make him a benefactor of sorts, and this may well be Kull.'s intention; cf., however, Dhatupatha 3.5 and e.g. Amarakosa 3.3.59.
The warrior taking to flight in fear
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also a certain popularity in addition to its belonging to the warrior group. The assumption that the idea expressed in M. 7.94 and 95 did survive also, or first of all, because it was popular, i.e. suited to the understanding of the great mass of people, to the general and uneducated public, may be taken as an additional or alternative explanation for its not being attested earlier. There is, admittedly, no clear evidence for the popularity of this idea, not even a circumstantial one, but a number of arguments, no doubt, support this impression.
4.5.1. In order to achieve the goal which the author of the two verses has set himself, viz. to stimulate effort for avoiding the bad act of taking to flight in battle, he had to refer to and uti lize an idea (viz. that the effects of one's deeds can pass over to somebody else) of which he could be sure that it was wide-spread and firmly rooted in the minds of the people at large. At least he must have been convinced that people are in any case inclined to believe in this idea, even if it should have been his own creation; and a punishment which refers to life after death in the manner described, i.e. which practically consists in losing the privilege of going to heaven and enjoying oneself in the company of heavenly damsels, is in fact much more concrete and hence also more effective than a mere change of the quantity of dharma or adharma substance seen against the background of an almost endless series of future rebirths.
4.5.2. What has to be taken into account here in addition are certain ideas connected with the king, and, to be sure, it is a <master of this type whom Manu has primarily in mind. What I am referring to is not so much the idea that the king gets the sixth part of the tapas accumulated by an ascetic living in his realm "nor the belief that he shares in the religious merit accumu
84. It is important here to remember that an army does not by any means consist of ksatriyas only; cf. fn. 69 and Hopkins, op. cit. (cf. fn. 70), p. 185 ff.
85. Cf. my article Samika und Srigin..., in WZKS, 23 (1979), pp. 29-60 and Kalidasa's Sak. II 13: yad uttişṭhati varnebhyo nṛpaṇām kṣayi tatphalam/ tapaḥṣadbhagam akṣayyam dadaty aranyaka hi nah // (quoted by P. V. KANE, History of Dharmasastra, Vol. II Pt. 1, Poona, 1974, p. 144).