"Not so," says Bháradvája, "the king lying on his death-bed, the minister may set up the princes and other chiefs of the royal family against one another or against other chiefs. Whoever attacks the kingdom may be put to death under the plea of disturbance and annoyance to the people; or having secretly punished the chief rebels of the royal family and brought them under his control, the minister shall himself take possession of the kingdom, for on account of the kingdom the father hates his sons, and sons their father; why then should the minister who is the sole prop of the kingdom (be an exception to it)? There-fore he shall never discard what has, of its own accord, fallen into his hands; for it is a general talk among the people that a woman making love of her own accord will, when discarded, curse the man. * "An opportunity will only once offer itself to a man who is waiting for it, and will not come a second time when he may be desirous of accomplishing his work."
"But it is," says Kautilya, "unrighteous to do an act which excites popular fury; nor is it an accepted rule. He shall, therefore, install in the kingdom such a son of the king as is possessed of amiable qualities. In the absence of a prince of good character, he may place before himself a wicked prince, or a princess, or the pregnant queen, and tell the other ministers:--„This is your caste (kshepa); look to the father of this (boy) as well as to your own valour and descent; this (boy) is merely a flag; and yourselves are the lords; pray, how shall I act‟?"
As he is saying this, others, taken in confidence before, shall say in reply:--"Who else than the one of your lead is capable of protecting the mass of the people of the four castes of the king" ? Then the other ministers will certainly agree to it.
—Kautilya, in the Arthaśāstra, 5.6:24-35
