University of Madras. Considerations on Some Aspects of Ancient Indian Polity Sir Subrahmanya Aiyar Lecture 1914

It is in great part an ideal picture of that which in the view of the Brahmans ought to be the law '. Putting aside the other implications of the verdict, the main proposition, which denies histori- city to the subject matter of the Code—can hardly be maintained to-day in regard to the entire content of even the Manu Smriti, and much less to some of the other Dharmasastras. [...] This was the working of the axiom of the common law of the time that it was the duty of the State and of the statesman to enforce every local, tribal, caste, communal or corporation usage or custom, that could be proved to be genuine, and to be not inconsistent with the interests or the mandates of the State. [...] The insistence on unity as the most important feature of the State--an insistence which must have gone far to strengthen the monarch's position, as the living symbol of this unity—would be quite explicable in the days of Kautilya, when the kingdom of the Nandas had crumbled through divided rule, and when the recollection of the ways in which the freedom of the republics of V ideha (the Vrijjians) [...] In this conception of the need for Government, we may discover the explanation for the declarations exalting the office and power of the king, for the general horror of anarchy (Arajata) and interregnums, the40 acceptance of heredity and primogeniture in the rules for the succession to the crown, and the suggestion that the throne should be filled on its vacancy, somehow, even if the accepted orde [...] The sacerdotal conception of the origin of the State, and the early rise of the priest- hood in the history of our country, the very early division of the people by varnas (caste), all combined to raise this maintenance of Dharma to the rank of one of the first duties of the State.