Explain the sources of ancient Indian political thought. (2020, 15 Marks)
Ancient India left no single treatise on politics. Its political ideas lie scattered across ritual, legal, epic, technical and Buddhist texts, and in inscriptions and foreign accounts, entangled with religion, society and economy. Bhikhu Parekh groups them into a Brahmanical stream built around dharma and danda, and a Buddhist stream whose politics must be drawn out of religious teaching.
Brahmanical Literature
- Vedic corpus. The Vedas speak of the rajan, the rashtra and two assemblies, the sabha and samiti; the Atharvaveda calls them the two daughters of Prajapati. The Aitareya Brahmana has the gods choose Indra as king for his merit.
- Dharmasutras and smritis. Apastamba and Gautama, then the Manusmriti, Yajnavalkya and Narada treat the origin of the state, kingship, danda, taxation and justice as one system.
- Epics. The Mahabharata’s Shanti Parva covers kingship, administration and diplomacy; the Ramayana draws the ideal king.
- Dandashastra. Kautilya (Chanakya/Vishnugupta)’s Arthashastra treats the seven elements of the state and statecraft in war and peace. It was followed by Kamandaka‘s Nitisara and the Shukranitisara, whose date is disputed, some scholars placing it very late.
Buddhist and Jain Literature
- Pali canon. The Agganna Sutta tells of the Mahasammata, a king chosen by the people. The Mahaparinibbana Sutta lists the conditions under which the Vajji republic would flourish, such as frequent assemblies and respect for elders.
- The Jatakas, the Ashokavadana and Ashvaghosha‘s Buddhacharita carry ideals of righteous kingship; Jain texts share the critique of ritual hierarchy.
Non-literary Sources
- Inscriptions. Ashoka‘s edicts set out a state policy of dhamma. Rudradaman‘s Junagadh inscription (c. 150 CE) boasts of repairing the Sudarshana lake without oppressive taxes or forced labour. The Uttaramerur inscriptions of Parantaka I (919 and 921 CE) record the election of village committees by lot.
- Foreign accounts. Megasthenes‘ Indica, surviving in fragments, together with Faxian and Xuanzang, describe administration as outsiders saw it.
- Coins and archaeology supply titles, territories and a check on what the texts claim.
Reading the Sources
- They are normative, telling kings what ought to be, and largely Brahmanical and male. Romila Thapar insists on testing them against inscriptions and non-Brahmanical evidence.
- Dates are contested. The Arthashastra is now widely read as a composite text.
- They were long neglected. Colonial-era Indologists held that India had produced metaphysics but no statecraft. R. Shamasastry‘s identification of the Arthashastra manuscript in 1905 undercut that claim. K. P. Jayaswal‘s Hindu Polity (1924) went the other way, reading modern parliamentary institutions into the ancient assemblies.
Present Relevance
These sources are being actively recovered. The Indian Army’s Project Udbhav (2023) studies the Arthashastra and other Indic strategic texts. Pali’s recognition as a classical language (3 October 2024) supports scholarship on the Buddhist canon.
Conclusion
The sources are plural, fragmentary and mostly prescriptive. Their value lies in reading them together: the texts give the ideals, the inscriptions and foreign accounts the practice. Together they show a tradition that debated the grounds of authority, the uses of force and the forms of assembly.