Verse 7.56

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

तैः सार्धं चिन्तयेन्नित्यं सामान्यं सन्धिविग्रहम् ।
स्थानं समुदयं गुप्तिं लब्धप्रशमनानि च ॥ ५६ ॥

taiḥ sārdhaṃ cintayennityaṃ sāmānyaṃ sandhivigraham |
sthānaṃ samudayaṃ guptiṃ labdhapraśamanāni ca || 56 ||

With these he shall always discuss all ordinary business relating to peace and war, as also the ‘state’, the sources of revenue, the means of protection, and the consolidation of what has been acquired.—(56)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

With the aforesaid councillors and finance-ministers he shall discuss the ‘ordinary business’— what may not be of a very confidential nature—‘relating to peace and war’; he shall consider peace and war; he shall consider the pros and cons of both sides of the question as to whether on a certain occasion peace or war would be the right course to adopt. But the actual decision he should take himself; so that he may not appear to have been guided by other persons.

He should also discuss the ‘state’; this is fourfold, consisting of Army, Treasure, City and Kingdom. Of these the ‘Army’ consists in Elephants, Horses, Chariots and Footsoldiers; and he shall discuss such things relating to them as maintenance, protection, and the appointment of proper commanders as regards the Treasury, it should abound in gold and silver in large quantities, which should not be spent; the cardinal parts of the Treasury shall never be expended; nor should payments to servants be delayed;—as regards the Kingdom, which is the same as country, it should be maintained intact against encroachment by others, by the careful looking after of rivers and trees and cattle, the building of protective works against possible attacks by enemies; it should not be allowed to depend entirely on rain, and in times of distress special penalties and taxes shall be levied (?);—as regards the City, the methods of guarding it are going to be described under 7.75.

Or, ‘sthāna’, ‘state’, may mean not deviating from its own position.

Similarly he shall also discuss the ‘sources of revenue’—such as agriculture, pastures, barriers, trade, fines and so forth.

‘Means of protection’,— of the king’s own kingdom, as going to be described later on.

‘Consolidation of what has been acquired’;—the honouring of learned and pious men and the continuance of bounties to them, the granting of fresh bounties; and the removal of all restraints; merciful treatment of the poor and the diseased; the instituting of fresh public sports and rejoicings and the continnance (continuance?) of those already in vogue. He shall put a stop to all abuses regarding the Treasury and judicial procedure, and introduce sounder methods of work. If there is some improper act done by others he shall stop it; but he shall not interfere with any righteons (righteous?) act that may be done by others.

In this manner ‘State’ and the rest shall be discussed.—(56).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

‘Sthānam’—‘Halting’ (Nandana).—Buhler misrepresents Medhātithi when he attributes to him the alternative explanation of sthāna as ‘loss of his Kingdom’, in reality Medhātithi says ‘stability of the Kingdom’ as rightly understood by Hopkins.

This verse is quoted in Virāmitrodaya (Rājanīti, p. 316), which adds the following notes:—Taiḥ, ‘with the said councillors,—chintayet, ‘the. King should deliberate,’—sandhiḥ, ‘alliances’—vigrahaḥ, ‘declaration of war’,—sthānam, ‘consisting of the four factors of the army, treasury, capital city and Kingdom’,—‘samudayaḥ,’ ‘agriculture, pastures, outposts, traders, cattle, customs, fines and so forth,’—guptiḥ, protection of his Kingdom,—labdhapraśamanam, ‘bestowing of honours and gifts upon temples, hermitages and learned men’;—the meaning of the phrase sāmānyam sandhivigraham is that he should discuss questions of peace and war in general, the detailed and specific details being discussed in connection with the ‘ṣāḍguṇya.’

It is quoted also in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 405) and in Rājanītiratnākara;—(p. 10b).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Yājñavalkya (1-311).—‘With the ministers the king shall take counsel; specially with the Brāhmaṇa.’

Arthaśāstra (p. 45).—‘The following are the qualities of the Chief Minister: He should have been born and bred in the kingdom, of noble birth, having a large family, versed in the arts, with keen powers of perception, intelligent, possessed of a retentive memory, clever, eloquent, bold, quick-witted, endowed with courage and influence, capable of hard work, pure, sympathetic, firmly loyal, equipped with character, strength, health and patience, devoid of haughtiness and fickleness, of prepossessing appearance and never likely to create enmities. The king shall therefore examine the land of birth and family of the candidates for Chief Ministership; the exact amount of their knowledge of arts and sciences he shall find out from other persons learned in the same; their intelligence, memory and cleverness he shall find out from actual experience; eloquence he shall find out from his conversations; as also lowness and quickness of wit; courage and influence shall be found out in times of trouble; purity, sympathy and loyalty from actual experience; character, strength, health and patience from their neighbours; and prepossessing appearance from direct perception.’

Arthaśāstra (p. 71).—‘All operations should be preceded by due discussion among Ministers.’

Kāmandaka (13.23).—‘The functions of the Prakritimaṇḍala are the following:—To hold counsels, to secure the results of counsels, to direct others to perform their functions, to ascertain the effects of coming events, to look after income and expenditure, to administer justice, to subjugate enemies, to avert threatening evils and calamities, to protect the kingdom,—those are the functions of the minister. But the minister who is subject to the vyasanas fails in all this.’