History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c40.10

v3.c40.10

5. It may further be observed that Hindu intelligence neglected the study of the science of war as well as the science of the proper conception of the state. Brahmin and Kshatriya intelligence revelled more in this subperiod in the study of poetics than in the necessary study of more useful sciences. The distinctions of heroines in love and despair, the essentials of poetry, poetical blemishes and embellishments, and the figures of speech engaged the highest intelligence of the land and even kings devoted their attention to writing elaborate treatises on poetics and dramaturgy. These works, no doubt, prove the fineness of Hindu intellect, but it should have devoted itself to more important studies. The attention and affluence of kings were bestowed more upon court-poets than upon generals; the stage attracted them more than the camp. The minute study of poetics led to the deterioration of taste and morals and the increase of voluptuousness can be marked from the Karpūra-Manjarī of Rājaśekhara to the Rambhā Manjarī of Nayachandra. The debasement of popular and kingly taste will be apparent from the first verse of adoration adopted even in Kanauj for such ceremonious and meritorious documents as inscriptions of grants of villages to pious Brahmins. Indeed luxury and voluptuousness were bound to overtake the people in this sub-period, since the last sub-period was the most prosperous period of Hindu history as shown in the last chapter of Volume II (pp. 247-258). Height of prosperity leads to decadence of morals and voluptuousness which undermine the physical and moral capacities of the people, as we see in the case of the Romans, the Arabs, the Moguls and others and it need not be wondered that the Hindu kingdoms in the twelfth century became weak, by reason of the very prosperity and happiness they had enjoyed.