The First Great Political Realist by Roger Boesche

Author:Roger Boesche
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780739155028
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2013-06-25T04:00:00+00:00

An Administered People

If Kautilya’s science of politics was put into practice by the Mauryan governments, then the king’s extraordinarily far-reaching bureaucracy controlled his subjects as much as any people in the ancient world. (Basak 1967, 1-16) U. Ghoshal comments that Kautilya’s detailed analysis of the bureaucratic administration of the state took him well beyond Machiavelli’s discussion of how a state works. (Ghoshal 1923, 155) While we cannot know if the empires of Chandragupta, Bindusara, and Asoka actually had such an extensive system of administration, Kautilya described a detailed bureaucracy unlike anything in other ancient empires such as those in Egypt, Persia, or China. If the bureaucracy in reality even approached what Kautilya suggested in theory, one reason must have been that some castes had government service as one possible occupation. “Generally speaking, the higher administrative positions seem to have been monopolised by [Brahmins] and [Kshatriyas].” (Das 1994, 145)

We will explore the economy in more depth later, but Kautilya wanted the state to control much of the economy. For example, “The Director of Stores should cause to be built a treasury, a warehouse, a store for forest produce, an armoury, and a prison-house.” (A.2.5.1, 72) And, “The Superintendent of the Armoury should cause to be made machines for use in battles, for the defence of forts and for assault on the enemies’ cities, also weapons.” (A.2.18.1, 131) The Director of Forest Produce should establish factories for making all kinds of things of wood “for ensuring livelihood and protection of the city.” (A.2.17.17, 131) The Director of Trade should set prices for most commodities “so as to favour the subjects” and not allow profits “injurious” to ordinary people. (A.2.16.5-6, 127) Kautilya’s government should even have a Superintendent of Courtesans who would hire courtesans, place them in government houses, tax and presumably license them, and be responsible for hiring teaches who will teach courtesans “knowledge of the arts of singing, playing on musical instruments, reciting, dancing, acting, writing, painting, playing on the lute, the flute and the drum, reading the thoughts of others, preparing perfumes and garlands, entertaining in conversation, shampooing and the courtesan’s art [presumably sexual pleasure].” (A.2.27.28, 161)

Has there ever been such a centralized bureaucratic administration that sought to control such details of ordinary people’s lives? The wisdom and command of the king were to be everywhere, manifested in every government official, but the king himself was not present. The king “should conceal, as a tortoise does his limbs, any (limb) of his own that may have become exposed.” (A.1.15.60, 36) While the power of the king was everywhere simultaneously, he himself was above the administration of everyday life. The king exercised this power through an extraordinarily extensive professional bureaucracy, probably from subcastes or jātis in which one was born for government service, from which the king chose officials based on merit, not a system of spoils. (Mehta and Thakkar 1980, 102)

If detailed record-keeping is a sign of a new despotism, as some such as Weber and Foucault have claimed, then indeed Kautilya’s kingdom was despotic.

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