A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c10.14

c10.14

some minor changes. The mention of the Śakas and the Pahlavas in both the above lists precludes the possibility of an interpolation in later times and it shows the second century B. C. to be the upper limit of the composition of the Śāntiparvan. This date, it may be added here, has been arrived at independently by the best authorities. (Cf. E. W. Hopkins, *The Great Epic of India* pp. 397-398). (2) The rājadharma section of the Śāntiparvan, although professing to embody the teaching of Bhīṣma, reveals no especial connection with the views, few and fragmentary as they are, that are attributed to Kauṇapadanta by Kauṭilya. In the parallel example of the Manusaṃhitā, Manu often flatly contradicts the view of the school of Arthaśāstra called by that name. Thus while the latter (Kauṭ. p. 6) declares the sciences to be three in number, the former (VII 43) includes all the four traditional sciences in the curriculum of the king's studies. Again, while the Mānavas (Kauṭ. p. 29) make the mantripariṣat consist of twelve members, Manu (VII 54) gives the number of councillors (sachivas) as seven or eight. A more general basis of difference between the two sets of works that we are now considering is that while the Arthaśāstra authors known to Kauṭilya are distinguished by their controversial spirit, the canonical authors of this period are principally concerned in their rājadharma sections to lay down the approved rules of kingly conduct. These discrepancies can, we think, be satisfactorily explained on our hypothesis of the synthesis of the Arthaśāstra and early canonical ideas in the later works. (3) Much as the rājadharma sections of the Śāntiparvan are indebted to the Arthaśāstra it is not difficult to detect in them some instances of original contribution to political theory. Such, for example, are the theories of the origin of monarchy which, as we hope to show later on, are so advanced in character in comparison with the earlier ideas on the subject that they may be safely assigned on the ground of internal evidence alone to the present period.