In a similar manner the entire civil administration must be conducted by the King.  He must see to it that wide roads, shops, and water conduits are constructed.  He must look after the streets and by-paths.  He must treat all classes impartially, and, above all, scrutinize carefully the work of the Courts of Justice.  “The penal code properly applied by the ruler maketh the warders [i.e., Judges] adhere to their respective duties, and leadeth to an acquisition by the ruler himself of virtue.” (Udhyog Parva, p. 383).  But although the subjects have the right to expect justice they cannot expect kindness or even easy condescension.  “The heart of a King is as hard as thunder” (Canti Parva, p. 57).  “Knowledge makes a man proud, but the King makes him humble” (Canti Parva, p. 223).  “When the King rules with a complete and strict reliance on the science of chastisements, the foremost of ages called the Kirta is said to set in” (ibid., p. 228).  “The King must be skilful in smiting” (ibid., p. 174).  “Fierceness and ambition are the qualities of the King” (ibid., p. 59).  “The King who is mild is regarded as the worst of his kind, like an elephant that is reft of fierceness” (ibid., p. 171).  Indeed, failure to treat subjects with rigour is visited with penalties as tremendous as failure to protect them.  “They forget their own position and most truly transcend it.  They disclose the secret counsels of their master; without the least anxiety they set at nought the King’s commands.  They wish to sport with the King as with a bird on a string” (ibid., p. 172).  And in the end they destroy him.  “The King should always be heedful of his subjects as also of his foes.  If he becomes heedless they fall on him like vultures upon carrion” (Canti Parva, p. 289).

Here we have commended as a pattern of administration a despotism such as the West has never experienced.  It is inquisitorial, severe—­sometimes, perhaps, wantonly cruel.  But from the fearful pitfalls that encompass weakness it is certain to be sleeplessly vigilant and in the highest degree virile, forceful, and efficient.  Now it will be asked what bearing the doctrines of a work four thousand years old have on the problems of the present day.  But it must be remembered, as that eminent scholar, the late Mr. Jackson, the victim of the abominable Nasik outrage, pointed out, that Hindu civilization and Hindu thought are at bottom the same now as in the days of Yudhisthira.

The Mahabharata is the constant companion from youth to age of every educated Indian.  Its tales have provided matter for the poetry, the drama, and the folk-songs of all ages and of all languages.  No Hindu will live in a house facing south, as it is there that lives Yama, the god of death.  No Hindu will go to sleep without murmuring Takshaka as a preventive against snake-bite.  For Takshaka rescued the snakes from the vengeance of Janamajaya, the great-grandson of the Mahabharata hero