A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c3.2

c3.2

The historical presentation of the Hindu theories of the State and Government is at this moment one of the great *desiderata* in the field of Indology. It is a welcome sign of the times that since the preparation of this volume was first undertaken, there has been a plentiful crop of books and papers bearing more or less directly upon selected areas of its subject-matter. So long however as there is a tendency, as at present, to depend mainly, if not exclusively, upon the analytical method, there is the risk of interpreting the concepts and categories of the Hindu thinkers in disregard of the limiting conditions of time and place. In the present work while analysis and comparison have, it is believed, received their due measure of attention, the object has been principally to unfold the record of the Hindu political mind in the order of its historical evolution as far as practicable. It has thus been possible to present the ideas concerned in their true historical perspective, and further and above all, to explain the process of their growth and development. It has thus become evident that Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra and the Śāntiparvan section of the Mahābhārata, to quote one example, are not solely or even principally a repository of the older political ideas, but probably register distinct advances of thought. Further, it has been shown that the remarkable theories of the king’s origin in the Mahābhārata and the Manusamhitā exhibit a complex blending of ideas presumably produced by a reaction against the anti-monarchical tendencies of the Buddhist theory of contract.