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BANERJEE: THOUGHTS IN HEMACANDRA
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understood to apply to one to another caste also who is engaged in the task of protecting the province, the district, and so forth."
Vijñānesvara then emphasises the duty of the king. As the king has a system of taxation (kara), and as the people pay taxes to the king, it is the duty of the king to protect the people and to look after the welfare of the people of his kingdom. Apararka also in the commentary of the same verse of Yajnavalkya justifies the same interpretation. In his opinion, all the duties as have been prescribed for a kşatriya ruler are also applicable to a non-kşatriya ruler. This idea is generated by the maxim (nyāya) which is applicable to the Rajadharma. Aparārka in the twelfth century was very sceptical about the kşatriya-origin of kingship. U.N. Ghosal, on this point, comments in his History of the Hindu Revenue System, Calcutta, 1929:
"Everyone who contributes wealth expects a benefit accruing to himself, while paying taxes has no other object than self-preservation and therefore one taking the taxes is bound to protect the people. In other words, taxation and protection are the two sides of a bargain between the ruler and his subjects. Thence follows the corollary that kingship is independent of ksatriya-birth”. (p 270). Gopāla in his Kamadhenu also reiterated the same view.
Laksmidhara in his Krtya-kalpa-taru focuses the idea of the origin and nature of kingship based on Manu and Nārada. While believing in the divine origin of the king, he also upholds that the penal authority of the king is the sign of securing of the social and political order of the country.
Hemacandra in his Laghvarhan-nïti has stated an interesting theory of the origin of rājanīti. In his opinion, the creation of Rajanīti goes back as far as to the prophet king Rşabha. Hemacandra makes the science as of Jain origin.
