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NOVEMBER, 1909.)
THE ARTHASASTRA OF CHANAKYA.
279
Katyayana holds that this (king) showers his favours broad-cast. Kaņinka Bharadvaja says that Krauncha ( a bird ) has moved from right to left. Dirgha Charayana says that this (king) is (like) a grass. Ghotámukha says that (he is like ) a wet cloth. Kinjalka says that (he is like ) an elephant pouring over water. Pisuna is of opinion that one should declare him to be a chariot-horse. The son of Pisana says that mortification ensues when bis opponent is courted.
When wealth and honour are discontinued, such king may be abandoned; or by recognising the character of the king as well as his own defects, he may rectify himself; or he may seek the protection of one of the best friends of the king.
Living with the king's friend, the courtier has to endeavour to remove, through the medium of his own friends, the defects of his master, and then come back to his original place, no matter whether the king is alive or dead.io
Chapter VI, Consolidation of the kingdom and absolute sovereignty.
(BAjyapratisandhanamaikai varyam oba. )
The minister shall thus avert the calamities in which the king is involved : long before the apprehended death of the king, he shall, in concert with his friends and followers, allow visitors to the king once in a month or two and avoid their visits on other occasions) under the ples that the king is engaged in performing such rites as are calculated to avert national calamities, or aro destructive of enemies, or capable of prolonging life or of procuring a son.
On appropriate occasions, he may shew a pseudo-king not only to the people, but also to messengers coming from friends or enemies; and this (false) king shall make the minister his mouth-piece in conversing with them as deserved. And through the median of the gate-keeper and the officer in charge of the harem, the minister shall (pretend to receive the orders of the king. Displeasure or mercy to wrong-doers shall be shewn only indirectly.
Both the treasury and the army shall be kept under the command of two reliable and confidential persons and in a single locality, either within the fort or at the boundary of the kingdom,
Cognates, princes, and other chiefs of the royal family may be employed in works such as the capture of a chief who, employed as a commander of a fort or the tracts of wilderness, has turned inimical along with a strong band of supporters; or they may be sent on an expedition full of difficulties, or to visit the family of the king's friend.
Whoever, among the neighbouring kings, seems to threaten with an invasion may be invited for some festival, marriage, capture of elephants, purchase of horses, or of merchandise, or for taking possession of some lands ceded to him, and captured; or such an enemy may be kept at bay by an ally till an agreement of not condemnable nature is made with him; or he may be made to iucur the displeasure of wild tribes or of his enemies; or whoever among his nearest relatives is kept under guard may be promised a portion of his territory and set against him.
• The meaning of the above six passages is not clearly known.
10 This is in flola metro.
