Rajadharma in Mahabharata: With Special Reference to Shanti-Parva

Rājadharma in Mahābhārata

Reconstructing Indian History and Culture, no. 37

Rājadharma in Mahābhārata

With Special Reference to Śānti-Parva

Priyanka Pandey

Cataloging in Publication Data — DK

[Courtesy: D.K. Agencies (P) Ltd. ]

Pandey, Priyanka, 1986-

Rājadharma in Mahābhārata : in particular reference

to Śānti-parva / Priyanka Pandey.

p. cm. (Reconstructing Indian history and

culture; no. 37)

Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

ISBN 13: 9788124610084

1. Mahābhārata. Śāntiparva – Criticism, interpretation, etc.

2. Hinduism and politics – India. 3. State, The, in literature.

I. Title. II. Series: Reconstructing Indian history and

culture; no. 37.

DDC 294.5923046 23

ISBN 13: 978-81-246-1008-4

First published in India in 2019

© Priyanka Pandey

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To

my dear

Father and Mother

नारायणं नमस्कृत्य नरं चैव नरोत्तमम् |

देवीं सरस्वतीं व्यासं ततो जयमुदीरयेत् ||

nārāyaṇaṁ namask¦tya naraṁ caiva narottamaṁ |

devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ tato jayamudīrayeta || — Mbh, Ādi-Parva I.1

Preface

What is here is found elsewhere.

What is not here is nowhere else. — Mahābhārata I.62.53

MAHĀBHĀRATA is a huge monument of Sanskrit literature. It is generally considered as a literary text and is one of the two great epics of India. It is the encyclopaedia of ancient India as it deals with different subjects in different contexts. It was enlarged at different periods by persons of different regions, time and mentalities. It occupies an important place in Indian tradition. Its importance lies in the fact that it has summarized the views of Indian political thinkers and further, its writers have discussed numerous political problems in detail and supplies various problems regarding the relation between man and state. Many scholars have tried to study the political ideas contained in Mahābhārata, many books have come to light dealing with the same subject. The idea of politics hardly finds an expression elsewhere as clearly as in Mahābhārata. The present work, in this regard is a modest attempt in the same direction. The purpose of the present work is to investigate the political thought in Śānti-Parva of Mahābhārata. The focus is to carve out the idea of the politics in the text. As we know in recent debates on the idea of the politics there are several positions like modernist and postmodernist.

One suggests that political defines the activities related to the statecraft, whereas the other proposes to take over personal as political. The main intention here is to make an intervention in the contemporary debate from the point of view of Sanskrit knowledge tradition. There are scholars in the West who have recently started exploring the political dimension of this knowledge system, however, their inability to comprehend the larger canvas of Sanskrit knowledge system fails them in such an endeavour. This book anchors itself in longer context of Indian philosophy and tries to read the political context of the text, which is considered merely as a religion or a literary text.

The aim of this work is show that Mahābhārata, apart from being an epic, is also a text in the study of politics. Whatever notion of politics we take, there is a possibility to find good amount of resources in Mahābhārata to articulate an Indian notion in this field. By comparing the notion of politics in the West, taking mainly the Greek tradition of thinking represented by Aristotle, and the Indian tradition represented by Śānti-Parva of Mahābhārata, I would like to argue that there are many similarities and dissimilarities between the two. Our central aim is to show that the idea of politics is not separated from the idea of ethics. The point perhaps will become clear if we explore the way these institutions are conceptualized. Therefore it is highly essential to study the notion of politics in Mahābhārata in the present context. The major focus areas of this work are:

1. Read Mahābhārata as a political text

2. Idea of political thoughts in Śānti-Parva

3. Constituting principles of politics in Śānti-Parva

4. Political institutions in Śānti-Parva

5. Relevance of these political thoughts in modern time.

The work has adopted the following methods in its course of delineation:

1. It has tried to interpret the original Sanskrit text, Śānti-Parva in relation to its political thinking.

2. Beside this, other writings on Indian political thoughts are also taken into account, via books, journals, articles, etc.

3. This work is focused on both the primary and secondary writings on Mahābhārata, by enquiring the basic political principles in Śānti-Parva.

4. It produces a comparative and critical study of the political thoughts in Mahābhārata with the modern politics, finding its place in the history of political thought.

Sources

For the present work, the following sources have been utilized.

1. Mahābhārata (Critical Edition), ed. V.S. Sukthankar, Poona, Bhandarakar Oriental Research Institute, 1933-66.

(The complete edition of Mahābhārata (18 parvas, 89,000 verses in the constituent text and elaborate critical apparatus; 19 volumes; no. of pages: 13,000 + demi quarto size) was released on 22 September 1966. This edition was prepared with painstaking efforts of scholars for about five decades consulting 1,259 manuscripts.)

2. Mahābhārata (6 volumes in Hindi and Sanskrit), ed. Pandit Ramanarayana Dutt Shastri Pandey, Gita Press, Gorakhpur, 1980.

Other secondary sources consist of Bhāratabhāva-Dīpīkā, Nīlakaṇṭha’s commentary on the epic, different translations of, and general works on Mahābhārata. Some other books like Rāmāyaṇa, Manu-Sm¦ti, Kāmandakīya Nītisāra and Śukra-Nītisāra have also been taken into account. Many books on political science have also been referred. And the writings of Indian and Western scholars have also been consulted. At some places archaeological, numismatic and epigraphic evidences have been used.

Beside the utilization of the secondary sources, attempt has been made to go through the reviews both of the occidentalists as well as of the orientalists. A glance at the reviews of the books has helped in two ways. One, it has given information about the limitations as pointed out by the reviewers in the scholarly works, and two, it also has made the researcher balanced in thought and meditation on the discussed problems. Hence the chapter-wise analysis of the topic has been made. The extant research is undertaken from the political point of view. The evidences of the epic have been collected as possible aid to research. They have also been used tentatively as historical material.

The topics, namely, daṇḍanīti, origin of state, the seven elements of state, functions of state, types of state, kingship, judiciary, administration, etc. have been discussed. The internal evidences from Śānti-Parva and also from other parvas of the epic have been collected, analysed and examined. The decisive conclusion made through introspection is tested on the objective data provided by the analytical chart. Thus, the work is the composite result of textual analysis, related literature and subjective contemplation.

Contents

Preface

List of Tables and Figures

Map of Bharātavarṣa in the Mahābhārata period

Abbreviations

Transliteration Key

Acknowledgements

1. Mahābhārata : An Introduction

Authorship of Mahābhārata

Date of Mahābhārata

Contents in Mahābhārata

Commentators on Mahābhārata

Devabodha

Vaiśampāyana

Vimalabodha

Sarvajñanārāyaṇa

Caturbhuja Miśra

Ānandapūrṇa Vidyāsāgara

Arjuna Miśra

Nārāyaṇa

Vādirāja

Nīlakaṇṭha

Important Sanskrit Recensions and

Editions of Mahābhārata

Mahābhārata in Other Indian Languages

Earlier Works on Mahābhārata

Śānti-Parva of Mahābhārata

Contents in Śānti-Parva

2. Politics in Western Tradition

Theoretical Aspect

Foundations Of State

The Theory of Divine Origin of the State

Force Theory

The Social Contract Theory

Patriarchal and Matriarchal Theories

Evolutionary Theory

Stages in Development of the State

Practical Aspect: Political Institutions

The State

Population

Territory

Government

Sovereignty

Theories of State Function

Idea of Liberalism

Political Ideas in Śānti-Parva

The Background

Daṇḍanīti

Nītiśāstra

Arthaśāstra

Rājyaśāstra

Rājanīti

Rājadharma

3. Political Ideas in Śānti-Parva

Origin of Politics

Subject Matter of Daṇdanīti

Importance of Daṇdanīti

State

Theory of The Origin Of State

Ends And Functions Of State

Constituents of The State

Svāmī (King)

Amātya (Minister)

Kośa (Treasury)

Janapada (Territory)

Durga (Fort)

Allies (Friends)

Daṇḍa (Military)

4. Interstate Relations and Forms of Government

Interstate Relations

Concept of Maṇḍala in Śānti-Parva

Classification of States and Six Expedients of Foreign Policy

Sandhi (Treaty and Alliance)

Vigraha (war)

Yātrā or Yāna

Āsana

Samśraya

Dvaidhībhāva or The Dual Course of Action

The Fourfold Foreign Policy

Diplomatic Agents

Ambassadors

Spies

Types and Forms of Government

Classification of Government In Mahābhārata

Monarchical States

Anarchical States

Gaṇarājya

Aristotle’s Classification of Government

Conclusion

5. Judiciary and Ethical Concepts

Judiciary

Justice According to Plato and Aristotle

Judiciary in Mahābhārata

Orgainzations of Judiciary

Code Conduct of Judges

Legal Procedure

Daṇḍa (Punishment) in Theory and Practice

Ethical Concepts

Ethics in Śānti-Parva

Varying Interpretation of Dharma

Sources of Dharma

Forms of Dharma

Sādhāraṇa-Dharma (Universal Moral Code)

Viśiṣṭa-Dharma

Varṇa-Dharma

Āśrama-Dharma

6. Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

List of Tables and Figures

Tables

1.1 18 Parvas of Mahābhārata

1.2 List of Commentators and Commentaries

1.3 Important Information about Major Editions of Mahābhārata

2.1 Theoretical and Practical Politics

Figures

2.1 Branches of political science

3.1 Seven constituents of the state

3.2 Types of durgas

4.1 Types of state in Mahābhārata

4.2 Forms of government according to Aristotle

Map of Bharātavarṣa in the Mahābhārata period

Abbreviations

ABORI — Annals of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

AitBrā — Aitareya Brāhmaṇa

BhāgavataP — Bhāgavata Purāṇa

B¦Up — B¦hdāraṇyaka Upaniṣad

BrSaṁ — B¦hat Saṁhitā

Gītā — Bhagavadgītā

IHQ — Indian Historical Quarterly

JAOS — Journal of the American Oriental Society

JRAS — Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

NK — Nītisāra of Kāmandaka

KA — Kauṭilya Arthaśāstra

Manu — Manu-Sm¦ti

Mbh — Mahābhārata

Nś — Nītisāra of Śukra

ŚP — Śānti Parva

YS — Yājñavalkya-Sm¦ti

Transliteration Key

A = a

AÉ = ā

C = i

D = ī

E = u

F = ū

G = ¦

H = §

I = ḷ

L = e

Lå = ai

AÉå = o

AÉæ = au

Mçü = k

ZÉç = kh

aÉç = g

bÉç = gh

Xèû = ṅ

cÉç = c

Nèû = ch

eÉç = j

fÉç = jh

gÉç = ñ

Oèû = ṭ

Pèû = ṭh

Qèû = ḍ

Rèû = ḍh

hÉç = ṇ

iÉç = t

jÉç = th

Sè = d

kÉç = dh

lÉç = n

mÉç = p

Tçü = ph

oÉç = b

pÉç = bh

qÉç = m

rÉç = y

Uç = r

sÉç = l

uÉç = v

vÉç = ś

wÉç = ṣ

xÉç = s

Wèû = h

¤Éç = kṣ

§Éç = tr

¥Éç = jñ

Å = ’

-ं (Anusvāra) = ṁ

È (visarga) = ḥ

Acknowledgements

My efforts to accomplish this book would not have been possible, without the love, affection, help, guidance and encouragement of a number of people and institutions. Their altruistic contributions deserve to be recalled.

First and foremostly, I am grateful to my esteemed supervisor Dr Santosh Kumar Shukla, Associate Professor of Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies (SCSS), JNU, and to my respected co-supervisor Dr Manindra Nath Thakur, Associate Professor of CPS, JNU, for their perspective guidance, inspiration, encouragement, feedback and cooperation despite their busy schedule. Their gracious propositions have propelled me to academically explore whole new things. I am highly indebted to them.

I express my sincere gratitude and thanks to our Chairperson, Prof. Girish Nath Jha and other faculty members, namely, Dr Hari Ram Mishra, Dr Ram Nath Jha, Dr Rajnish Mishra, Dr Sudhir Kumar and to Dr Shashiprabha Kumar, SCSS, JNU, New Delhi for encouraging and allowing this work to come into fruition. I am thankful to the staff members of Jawaharlal Nehru University Library, University of Delhi Library and University of Allahabad Library for their timely assistance in finding out the right materials. I also express my sincere thanks to all the office staff of my centre and those who directly or indirectly helped me in completing this work.

I will be indebted forever to the unconditional and immutable love of my parents father Shri Pramod Chandra Pandey and mother Smt. Malti Pandey. I am delighted by recalling the adorable moral back-up that I have received from my elder sister Vandana and elder brothers Bhupendra, Rajan and Pankaj. I am deeply indebted to my sister Monika and brother Rahul for their prayers, affection and immense support. Also it is hard to forget the lovely and unbreakable talks of Aditya and Gaargi. I owe my sincere gratitude to my mamaji, Shri Jaideva Mishra and to my jijaji Vashistha Narayana Shukla for their constant love and encouragement for completing this work.

I am very appreciative of unmatched help provided by my friends, classmates and seniors. They have been with me in each and every bit of my sufferings.

I also convey my gratitude and thanks to all the persons and institutions, those who have overtly or covertly propelled me miles towards this academic horizon. Without their cooperation this book could not have come out in its final form.

1

Mahābhārata : An Introduction

majjet trayī daṇḍanītau hatāyāṁ

sarve dharmāḥ prakṣayeyurvibuddhāḥ |

sarve dharmāścāśramāṇāṁ hatāḥ syuḥ

kṣātre tyakte rājadharme purāṇe ||

sarve tyāgā rājadharmeṣu dr̥ṣṭāḥ

sarvā dīkṣā rājadharmeṣu coktāḥ |

sarvā vidyā rājadharmeṣu yuktāḥ

sarve lokā rājadharme praviṣṭāḥ || — Śānti-Parva LXIII.28.29

In the history of literature, world literature in general and Sanskrit literature in particular, Mahābhārata occupies a central place. Perhaps after Rāmāyaṇa this great epic has deeply influenced the minds of scholars and researchers as well as of common people. So many of the scholars considered it as Itihāsa¹ (itihās purṇābhyāṁ vedaṁ samupbr̥hayet), Purāṇa,² Ākhyāna,³ Saṁhitā,⁴ Kāvya⁵ and the sources and basis of all the legends. It is the fifth Veda, namely, the Kārṣṇa Veda,⁶ i.e. the Veda of Kr̥ṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa, being Kr̥ṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa its author. It is mentioned in the Svargārohaṇa-Parva that Vyāsa completed this work after working hard for three years:

tribhirvarṣairidaṁ pūrṇaṁ kr̥ṣṇadvaipāyanaḥ prabhuḥ|

akhilaṁ bhārtaṁ cedaṁ cakāra bhagavān muniḥ|| — Svargārohaṇa-Parva V.48

Mahābhārata is considered as the essence for all the Vedas. By itself it is equal to, nay, even greater than the remaining Vedas.⁷ Hence one should study the Vedas with its help:

itihāsapurāṇābhyāṁ vedaṁ samupabr̥ṁhayet ||

bibhetyalpaśrutād vedo māmayaṁ prahariṣyati | — Ibid. I.267-68

Besides these it is known as Dharmaśāstra, Arthaśāstra and Kāmaśāstra.⁸ There is much truth in Vyāsa’s challenge that:

dharme cārthe ca kāme ca mokṣe ca bharatarṣabha |

yadihāsti tadanyatra yannehāsti na tat kvacit || — Ibid. I.62.53

That which occurs here about dharma, artha, kāma and mokṣa (four ends of human life), occurs elsewhere and that which does not occur here, occurs nowhere else.

It is really an encyclopaedia of Indian intellectual tradition in which social, moral, ethical, economical and political conditions are described extensively. It removes ignorance the way sun removes darkness.⁹ By its name, it is self-explanatory. In Svargārohaṇa-Parva, it has been stated that the significance of Mahābhārata lies in its greatness and weightiness. In Ādi-Parva, the meaning of the two compound words (mahā-bhārata) finds mention in more clear terms. Being a voluminous (mahat) work and heavy (bhāravat) to lift and carry, the great epic came to be called Mahābhārata. It contains a detail of life and death of Kuru vaṁśa, hence it is identified with Mahābhārata. As stated:

mahattvād bhāravattvācca mahābhāratamucyate |

niruktamasya yo veda sarvapāpaiḥ pramucyate || — Ādi-Parva I.274

It is the longest poem known to the literary history with 100,000 verses (ślokas). So far as the prefix mahā is concerned, it is justified to add that Mahābhārata is larger than Iliad and Odyssey both in size and contents. Even the Vedas have a diminishing utility in comparison and contrast with Mahābhārata. The internal evidences of Mahābhārata refer to the utility of its study. Second, one should study the Vedas with its help. It is further stated that when one’s knowledge of the Vedas is superfluous and useless, one delves into Mahābhārata. There is one more ground which adds a feather to its significance. It is open for both scholars and laymen. It will not be out of place to discuss its importance so far as its readers, reciters and listeners are concerned. Its study is fruitful for everyone irrespective of one’s profession and caste (varṇa). It has been stated in Ādi-Parva that one gets emancipation and is free from all his committed sins, provided he reads the epic in the early morning.

Even a listener is bestowed with an equal merit if he listens to it. It holds great importance for warriors. One undoubtedly emerges victorious in the battlefield if one reads and listens to it. There is another significance of the epic as it has been interpreted in a different sense by the scholars. In the northern and southern recensions of the epic, it has been emphasized that its reading help to attain victory (jaya). R.C. Jain (1979) is desperately busy to prove that jaya was the nucleus of Mahābhārata. For the support of his statement, he has taken many references from R̥gveda and the Brāhmaṇas.

It has been dwelling on that if the king wants to emerge victorious in the war, he must read the great epic. The advantage of its reading and listening is equal to the merit of Rājasūya and Aśvamedha Yajñas. As stated in Ādi-Parva LXII.21:

mahīṁ vijayate rājā śatrūṁścāpi parājayet |

idaṁ puṁsavanaṁ śreṣṭhamidaṁ svastyayanaṁ mahat ||

It is capable of liberating one from great sins, and of helping one in the attainment of long life, glory and heaven.¹⁰ The merits of this deathless poem have been well recognized by many modern scholars also. To Winternitz (1927/1953), it is in a poetic sense, not one poetic production at all, but rather a whole literature.¹¹ A.A. Macdonell (1928) calls it an encyclopaedia of moral teaching.¹² R.C. Dutt (1944: 332) describes it as an encyclopaedia of the life and knowledge of ancient India and says "no single work except the Bible has such an influence in affording moral instructions in Christian lands as Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa in India (ibid.: 33). According to C. Rajagopalachari (1951) it is a Veritable ocean, containing countless pearls and gems. It is, with Rāmāyaṇa, a living fountain of ethics and culture of our motherland.¹³ P.C. Roy (1890) describes it as pre-eminently the encyclopaedia of the heroic age of the Hindus…".¹⁴

The epic has several messages and the more one delves into it, the deeper one grasps its meaning. It is considered as the book of education not less significant than that of Plato’s Republic which supplies information in connection with the education of the philosopher kings and communism of wives. So far as the impact of Mahābhārata is concerned; the poet Bāṇa was influenced by it.¹⁵ It also has inspired the dramatists in the past. Ludwig, a Vedic scholar, was of the view that special attention should be paid to study the disjointed pieces of Mahābhārata (Sukthankar 1975: 29).

Similarly, Ācārya Śaṅkara and Kumārila, the celebrated Indian philosophers, as well as Jñānaeśvar and Rāmadāsa, the famous Indian saints, were influenced by its message.¹⁶ Amartya Sen (2006: 3) has also written about it:

With about one hundred thousand verses, long prose passages, or about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahābhārata is roughly seven times the length of Iliad and Odyssey combined or about the four times the length of Rāmāyaṇa.

W.J. Johnson (1998) has compared the importance of Mahābhārata to the world civilization to that of Bible, works of Homer and Quran. Though the phalaśruti (merit of regarding the people) has been questioned it is not an original part of Mahābhārata. But both the southern and northern recensions of Mahābhārata refer to its usefulness.

In Indian tradition Mahābhārata is considered as the great source of the best ideals (Sukthankar 1975: 30). In the vast parameters of the original narratives of Bharata-Vaṁśī heroes, the preachers of the Dharmārtha and Ākhyāyanas were included in this text. Because of these Ākhyānas, teachings and description on dharma and Nīti-Śāstric views, Mahābhārata is literally, historically and religiously considered a great and important text of Hindus. According to C.V. Vaidya (vs 1917: 26), Mahābhārata is not only a text of history and religion, but it is the best epic. In the starting of the text Veda Vyāsa himself called it poetry¹⁷ and also there is an indication in Mahābhārata that this poetry will be upajīvya for all the major poets.

sarveṣāṁ kavimukhyānāmupjīvyo bhaviṣyati || — Ādi-Parva I.92

Mahābhārata is a great source of motivation for many epics and dramas of the Sanskrit language and also for the Kāvyas of Hindi poets (Sinha 1985: 20). It is the source of motivation for Sanskrit, Hindi and many other Indian languages texts.

Beside these, Mahābhārata is also valuable from the political point of view. In Mahābhārata abundant materials are available on politics. In Śānti-Parva, a large part named Rājadharma is on politics. And many other parvas like Ādi, Sabhā, Āraṇyaka and Udyoga also have given valuable information on political ideas.

Many writers, who have written on Ancient Indian Monarchy or on the political field, have taken a great amount of valuable materials from Mahābhārata. D.R. Bhandarkar, N.C. Vandyopadhyaya, Beni Prasad, R.P. Giri, V.R.R. Dikshitar, T.V. Mahalingam, N.N. Law, P.C. Basu, A.K. Sen, R.C. Majumdar, R.K. Mukherjee, K.P. Jayaswal, J.J. Anjaria and H.N. Sinha are some of the great scholars, who have given their mature contribution to this field. The text Government in Ancient India of A.S. Altekar is quite well known. In these texts, the evidences are mainly taken from Śānti-Parva and one or two verses have also been taken from other parvas. U.N. Ghoshal in his A History of Indian Political Ideas has discussed about Rājadharama, featured in Śānti-Parva, in four chapters, which is not available in such a form in any other text of political theory. Shyamlal’s text, Bhīṣma kā Rājadharma is based on the Rājadharma section of Mahābhārata.¹⁸ Due to the availability of abundant materials on politics, Mahābhārata is selected as the fundamental text for the present work.

Authorship of Mahābhārata

jayati parāśarasūnuḥ satyavatīhr̥dayanandano vyāsaḥ |

vyāsasyakamalagalitaṁ vāṅmayamamr̥taṁ jagat pibati || — Harivaṁśa-Parva II.3

Traditionally, the authorship of Mahābhārata is attributed to Vyāsa. It is mentioned in Ādi-Parva that Kr̥ṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa was its author. And on the basis of Kr̥ṣṇa, which forms a part of its supposed author, it is called the Kārṣṇa Veda,¹⁹ the Veda of Kr̥ṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa. As said in Ādi-Parva