Chapter 5 India 163Clearly, there was another vast population in these regions who were not Indo-
Europeans (i.e., Aryans), who spoke other languages, who supported themselves
by cultivation outside the small kingdoms being founded by the newcomers.
These dark-skinned Dasyus would slowly be absorbed into these kingdoms as
society grew larger and more complicated, and the vocabulary and idioms of the
texts would provide a conceptual framework for incorporation. But that is a pro-
cess that took hundreds, indeed thousands, of years and is still going on. Remem-desolation, says: “This world is savage. How can one understand the savagery of this
world?” and Bhishma replies: “You are part of it.” The Mahabharata cannot imagine a
dharma for a kshatriya (warrior) other than this one:
[The kshatriya] must always be ready to slaughter the enemy, he must show brav-
ery in battle.... Killing is the chief dharma of one who is a kshatriya. There is no
higher duty for him than to destroy enemies.... [A kshatriya] who would satisfy
the claims of his dharma, a king in particular, must fight.
Mahabharata 12.60.13–18
The most famous and beautiful section of the Mahabharata is the Bhagavad-Gita
(the “Song of God”), where the warrior-prince Arjuna halts in his chariot, filled with
dread at the coming battle where he must kill his cousins or be killed by them. The
god Krishna has taken the form of his charioteer and urges him on, giving him moral
justification for it:
I am time grown old, creating world destruction
set in motion to annihilate the worlds;
even without you, all these warriors
arrayed in hostile ranks
will cease to exist.
Therefore, arise
and win glory!
Conquer your foes
and fulfill your kingship!
They are already
slain by me.
Be just my instrument,
the archer at my side! (Miller 1986:11–12)
But the Ramayana has a new vision for kings. Its author, Valmiki, writing the Rama-
yana for kshatriya patrons, suggested a different dharma for kshatriyas. Rama rejects
“the kshatriya’s code [rajadharma] where unrighteousness and righteousness go
hand in hand, a code that only debased, vicious, covetous, and evil men observe”
(Pollock 1986: 68). Rama is the first kshatriya prince to renounce artha, power. When
palace intrigue puts his succession into jeopardy, instead of plunging into warfare to
claim his rightful throne—the Mahabharata solution—he goes into a 14-year exile, liv-
ing like an ascetic in the wilderness. On his return to Ayodhya at the end, purified by
his suffering in exile, empowered by his asceticism, and made wise enough to gov-
ern, Rama ushers in a utopian age of peace, abundance, and righteousness.