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Rulers and Priests: A Study in Cultural Control

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Stephen P. Cohen
Stephen P. Cohen
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
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Extract

The purpose of this article is to shed some light on contemporary Indian problems of defense and civil-military relations through an examination of the role of the military in ancient Hindu society.

Type
War and Peace
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , January 1964 , pp. 199 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1964

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References

1 Military Organization and Society (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1954).Google Scholar

2 Ibid., p. 429.

3 Kautilya, , Arthasastra, trans. Dr.Shamasastry, R. (7th ed.; MysorePrinting and Publishing House, 1961), p. 288.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., p. 362–63.

5 The Twiceborn: A Study of A Community of High-Caste Hindus (London: The Hogarth Press, 1957)Google Scholar. See especially the first half of the book.

6 Kautilya, pp. 319–20.

7 Ṛg Veda, X.90.

8 Bhagavad-Gītā, 2.30, trans. S. Radhakrishnan, in Moore, C.A. and Radhakrishnan, S. (eds.), A Source Book in Indian Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957), p. 109.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., 2.38.

10 Ibid., 2.42–2.53, pp. 109–10.

11 Ibid., 3.43, p. 116.

12 VII.144, trans. S. Radhakrishnan, in Radhakrishnan and Moore, p. 187.

13 “Knowledge as a sacrifice is greater than any material sacrifice … for all works without any exception culminate in wisdom.” Gītā, 4.33, trans, by S. Radhakrishnan in Radhakrishnan and Moore, p. 119.

14 X.74–X.104.

15 Kautilya, pp. 249, 247, 258.

16 Ibid., p. 185.

17 Ibid., p. 261.

18 Ibid., p. 35.

19 Ibid., p. 15.

20 XIII, 86.35–6, cited in Altekar, A.S., State and Government in Ancient India (Benares, 1949), p. 101.Google Scholar

21 Altekar, p. 57.

22 Ibid., p. 53.

23 Ibid.

24 A History of Indian Political Ideas (London: Oxford University Press, 1959), p. 564.Google Scholar

25 Edicts of Aioka, trans. Murti, G. Srinivasa and Aiyangar, A. N.Krishna (Madras: The Adyar Library, 1951), p. 19.Google Scholar

26 Ibid., pp. 19–21.

27 One punishment indicated was the wearing of white (layman's) robes.

28 Psychopathology and Politics (reprint edition; New York: The Viking Press, Inc., 1960)Google Scholar; Power and Personality (reprint edition; New York: The Viking Press, Inc., 1962).Google Scholar

29 There are exceptions to this generalization. See the Laws of Manu, VII.8: “Even an infant king must not be despised, (from an idea) that he is a (mere) mortal; for he is a great deity in human form.” Radhakrishnan and Moore, p. 186. Passages similar to this, which attribute divine origin or stature to the King, can be found throughout the Hindu literature, just as passages can be found in the Chinese literature indicating the opposite. But in practice, if not always in theory, the above was the prevalent situation.

30 Zimmer, Heinrich, Philosophies of India, ed. Campbell, Joseph (New York: Bollingen, 1951), p. 104.Google Scholar

31 Edicts of Aśoka, Introduction, p. xxxv.

32 Kautilya, p. 32.

33 Ibid., p. 33.