Mātsya-nyāya is a central concept in the political science of ancient Brāhmanical India. When the King fails to protect the Kingdom, chaos ensues, and Mātsya-nyāya – ‘the Guiding Principle (nyāya) of the Fish (mātsya)’ – comes into effect. Without the State to maintain law and order, the stronger prey on the weaker, just as fish do. Avoiding such anarchical chaos is often cited in support of monarchical rule.

Mātsya-nyāya has been equated with the Western ‘State of Nature’ as described by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke; and, consequently, connected with the Social Contract tradition. The ‘State of Nature’ refers to a theoretical prehistorical time before the political State’s formation. For Locke, it is an idyllic ‘Golden Age’; for Hobbes, it is a free-for-all indistinguishable from the ‘State of War’. The ‘Social Contract tradition’ explains the political State by theorising that it originated through a contract between the People and a Sovereign, whereby the People relinquish rights in exchange for the Sovereign’s protection.

Some ancient depictions of Mātsya-nyāya involve agreements comparable to Social Contracts. But evidence from the epic Mahābhārata, the legal treatise of Manu, and the political science treatise of Kauṭilya reveals that Mātsya-nyāya is not a time-period such as the ‘State of Nature’, but rather a mode of conduct that operates during periods of anarchical chaos. Furthermore, in stark contrast to Western Social Contracts, Divine sanction, not Popular consent, is the most important legitimator of the King in the Brāhmanical agreements; and the People’s rights play no role in the contracts’ terms. These key differences can be ascribed to the distinct normative political ideals of ancient Brāhmanical communities. The Indian evidence demonstrates that the Western formulation is just one possible articulation of Social Contract explanations of the State, and illustrates how a State’s socio-cultural structures inform explanations of that State’s origins.

Speaker:
Christopher Haddad studied Ancient History – Greek and Latin – at Macquarie University, Sydney; Sanskrit and Old Iranian at the University of Oxford; and Law at the University of Sydney. His research and teaching covers four main areas: ancient Greek and Latin linguistics, especially bilingualism and language contact in official documents; Old Persian language and inscriptions; ancient Sanskrit legal and political science treatises; and modern Australian Law, Legal History, and Legal Philosophy. Before being awarded a Visiting Fellowship at ANU he held scholarships and fellowships at the British School at Rome, the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents in Oxford, and the Fondation Hardt in Geneva. He is currently preparing a monograph on the language of Roman official letters in Greek, and working on a project with James McDonald and Ellen Ryan, publishing the Commentary on Xenophon’s Hellenika of ANU’s own late and great Doug Kelly.