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148
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(AUGUST, 1920
disregard of friendship. An aspiring king should abide the opportunities offered by dispute with other states but should not artificially stir them up to create the opportunities. It cannot be asserted that no breaches of salutary practices conducive to inter-state peace occurred in ancient times. An unruly, aggressive sovereign might have set them at naught but not without incurring the displeasure of the other states or even of his own subjects.34 Whether this displeasure could take shape in steps to bring to justice the infraction of the practices is another question. The displeasure indicates the volume of opinion for the maintenance of the practices and can well be a reason for considering them as the prevailing ones.
The legitimate inference, therefore, stands out to be that an aspiring sovereign should accumulate as much power as possible by a due application of the adstric injunctions to his personal conduct as well as to his administration of the realm. The increase of vigour of the resource-elements of the state should always be followed up by the pursuit of those measures that remove the obstructions retarding their progress and make them stout and healthy. The steps suggested for the extension of territory and acquisition of power by conquests may lead one to infér that they imply treacherous attacks, without preceding conflict, on friendiy states or on those in a miserable plight, but in the light of other evidences there does not appear to be any ground for such supposition. The opportunities for war offered by the disputes that naturally came on were generally enough for the ambition of a royal aspirant able to utilize them fully. Unjustified invasions of states merely to satisfy the earth-hunger of the invader were condemned by the opinion of the sovereigns generally as well as of the citizens. When a king was powerful enough, he could assert and proclaim his power by performing the rdjasúya or the asvamedha ; but so long as he lacked this power he had to wait for opportunities, making most of those that actually did present themselves The advice of the writers of treatises on polity is directed to this full utilization of opportunities, which is possible only by a previous accumulation of strength from careful and diligent internal administration of the realm and a regulation of inter-statal dealings in the light of their instructions and recommendations garnering the political wisdom of the past.
The conquest of the earth 'may be the goal cherished by the sovereigns but the diffi. culties besetting it are enormous. The lower the position of a monarch in the comity of states, the more onerous is his attempt to reach the goal. Favourable circumstances play no mean part in the achievement of the object, as also the capacity of the aspirant and his adherents. The task moreover cannot, except rarely, be accomplished by the labour of a single monarch in his life-time. The various usurpations of the throne of comparatively larger kingdoms extended into 'world-powers 'by the usurpers may tend to obscure this view of the.question; but really the kingdoms acquired by the usurpers were not fabrics of their creation but of their predecessors. Keeping these limitations in mind, we can well endorse the statement of the Kautiliya, laudatory in a way of the injunctions of the works od polity.
Atmavám-tutalpadesopi yuklah prakyitisampada
nayajñah Prithivim kritanam jayatyreva ng hiyate. 35 IA self-controlled (king), with even a small territory, but versed in polity and possessed of the state-elements in a flourishing condition, is sure to conquer the world and never decline in power.] Kautilya's discourse on the courses of action is not meant for the central state alone,
but also for the other components of the mandala ; for The couros of action advico is needed as much for the state oentrally (shad-gunyam).
situated as for those in different situations. Hence, two aspects of his advice See the Kautilya, Bk. VII, ch. 13, p. 300; where reference is made to the displeasure incurred by attacks on sovereigne righteous, or friendly.
26 Kaufiliya, Bk. VI, ch. 2, p. 257.
