Mahabharata – 156

by

Sankar Mukherjee

and

Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
                       Aadivamsavatarana Parva

      Santanu the ideal king 

The virtues of the great & fortunate king Santanu of the Bharata race were countless. Indeed, it is this beautiful history that is the Mahabharata. His neck was, like a conch-shell, his shoulders were broad, & his prowess likened that of an elephant mad for action. It would seem that all the auspicious signs of royalty were present in him.The king Santanu, the most respected by  the gods & royal sages, was known in all the worlds for his intelligence, virtues, & truthfulness The qualities of self-control, liberality, forgiveness,wisdom , modesty, patience & great energy found their home in the figure of Santanu.He was  conversant with both religion and profit.

The king was the protector of the Bharata race & all human beings. His subjects, seeing him learnt that virtue is ever superior to pleasure and profit.

And truly there was never a king like Santanu. All the kings on the earth, considered Santanu the King of kings because of his attributes. During his reign they were without woe and fear and anxiety of any kind. And they all slept in peace, rising from bed every morning after happy dreams. And when the earth was ruled by Santanu the religious merits of each order increased greatly. And Santanu residing in Hastinapura, the beautiful capital of the Kurus, ruled the whole earth surrounded by the seas by compassion. The kingdom & the subjects were devoid of desire & anger. Santanu extended equal protection to all the creatures. Then sacrifices of animals in the honour of the gods, the rishis, and the pitris took place. But,otherwise no creature was deprived of life sinfully. And Santanu was the king and father of all of those that were poor & had no protectors. He protected every creature like  birds, beasts & so on. His subjects were truthful & the minds of the people were directed towards salvation and virtue. And Santanu, having enjoyed domestic life for long retired from the world.  The last thirty six years of his life were spent in the woods.

The Mahabharata over and over again dwells on what a model king should be like. There are two schools of thought in idealism & realism. Idealism is other worldly. The brahmins keen on attaining other worldly happiness renounce the worldly life & pursue the path of penance in the woods, may be at the ashramas.But the other castes such as the kshatriyas the vaishyas & the sudras however do not renounce the world.They are very much involved in the matrix of worldly life.Thus they are practical & realists. But at heart they cultivate the values that could lift them to a different plane of life & thoughts. Thus there is a clear distinction between the cult of the brahmins & the cult of the other castes. The king rules the brahmins as well as the other castes.The function of the king is to protect each caste.The brahmin seeks to have the conversation with the divinity that lurks behind the show of things.The vaisyas are catalysts in increasing the wealth of the society.The sudras see to that all the castes could pursue their objects with their help.And the function of the king or the kshatriyas is to protect every one in the state so that every one can pursue their economic activities or the quest for other worldly truth in accordance with their a priori inclination.And once one’s a priori inclination is given space for efflorescence one is happy.So Santanus rule made all the people happy.It goes without saying that he could not make others happy unless he would become happy in looking after the people to help the latter in fulfilling their hopes & ambitions.But Santanu went beyond that He saw to the protection of the plants & animal world.This is possible only for a person who loves all things both great & small.This serves as a contradiction to the attitude of the West.The eightenth century poet Alexander Pope posited the proper study of the mankind is man.This focus on man deprived the civilisation of its love for the world.The world is not peopled by man alone.Nature is very much there with its birds & beasts worms & insects seas & ponds hills & valleys & our king Santanu looked after their well being as well.And this is not all Aristotle pointed out that the state came into being to transform the life of men so that it is blithe with happiness.A beautiful lifemust be made possible.The state has four constituent element in land people government & sovreignty. The king is the government & enjoys the sovreign power of the state.He is the leader.His subjects will follow him.They will not only obey the rules imposed by him.They will imitate his ways of life & thought process.Santanus thought process was devoid of greed & anger.A true kshatriya he is happy when his subjects as well as the Nature surveyed by him are happy.And this is how he charged his followers & subjects with  altruism.And Santanu was thus rajdharma animated  ----- the archetype of ideal king or government.