Politics

We have no doubt that an aspect of ancient Arakanese political thought was directly influenced by Vedas. According to the Arakanese Buddhists say that the Vedas were propounded originally by Maha Brahma, at which time they were perfect truth; but they have since been corrupted by Brahma, and now contain many errors, and to have been preserved by tradition, until it was arranged in its present order by a sage, who thence obtained the surname of Vya'sa or Vada-vya'sa, that is, compiler of the Vedas.

The Vadas, the sacred books, were divided into  four parts, which are severally entitled Saman(sa'man, from the root sho', to destroy, Rig(Rich, from the verb rich, to laud), Yajust(yajush,from the verb yaj, to worship or adore) and Atharvana(mathematics, particularly astronomy), the forth is being lost.

The Manu or Manu Smriti was one of the greatest providing towards the ancient Arakan political tradition. It had had to guide on Caste System, on Kingship, an Qualities of a King, the King and his Ministers, an Qualities of a Minister, Methods of Selection of Ministers, Duities of a King, Concept of Danda, Taxation, Justic and Judical System and inter-State Relations. It had reflected a mixture of ethics and religion with politics. And Its concepts  almost dealt out to detail account of administrative, socio-ecomomic and political aspects of State.

Philosophy of Kautilya is also known as Chanakya's ethics was the great influence in the Arakanese political thought and practice. Its Seven Elements of State (1.the lord or sovereign 2.minister 3.territory as well as population 4.fort 5.treasury 6.army 7.ally), State and Kingship, Kingship, Duties of a King and King and his Council of Ministers etc. guided to the use of polity in Arakan.

The rulers or Kings of Arakan were blessing the coronation by Monks and Brahmns, accompanied with the pouring of pure water, which carried from five royal rivers in both India and Arakan.And the taking an oath was having a great effect to install of kingship by coveing an image of Buddha from one place to head of king in Arakan. The king must be abided absolutely the rules or duties of king accordence with an oath on scripture.

According to Buddhism, the king have needed to keep or observe the ten laws incumbent on kings to pratise or Ten Duties of kings, the Seven Safeguards against Decline, the Four providence to People, and to be guided by Twelve Practices of Rulers, the Six Attributres of Leaders, the Eight Virtues of Kings and the Four Way to Overcome Peril.

The ten duties of Kings are liberality, morality, self-sacrifice, integrity, kindness, austerity, non-anger, non-violence, forbearance and non-opposition to the people's will.

Although the both major Brahmanism and Buddhism are the religious doctrines had affected all the Arakanese national political institution and practic.