A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c6.24

c6.24

We have endeavoured to describe the salient features of Hindu political thought following from the peculiar conditions of the land and character of its people. It now remains to observe that the historical treatment of this body of ideas is subject to the limitations imposed by the dominant characteristics of Hindu literary craftsmanship. We have to mention, in the first place, the general tendency of the Hindu writers to connect their works with schools and systems instead of making these the expression of their own minds. Indeed it appears that the personality of the individual is in this case merged in the common tradition and collective unity of the school. Thus in the field of political thought it is the Vedic theological schools and the schools of the Sacred Tradition (Smriti) as well as those of the Buddhist canon and the secular Arthaśāstra, that have been the nurseries of the most copious and original ideas. On the other hand, individual authors as such have made a relatively small contribution to the common stock of thought. Further, these writers are in most cases so enveloped in a mist of obscurity that they are no better than names. This general tendency towards the preponderance of schools is no doubt connected with an essential feature of Hindu culture, consisting in its emphasis of the communal consciousness at the expense of individual experience. Allied to this tendency is another characteristic feature of Hindu literature, namely, the indefiniteness of its chronology. It is indeed a striking fact that notwithstanding the immense strides that have been taken in the study of Indian antiquities, the dates of most of the literary compositions are still open to serious divergences of opinion among scholars. A typical instance is furnished by the political treatise of Kāmandaka which has been assigned no less than three district dates ∗ ranging from the third to the seventh centuries A. D. In other cases, as in the classical instance of the works of the Brahminical sacred literature, the utmost exertions of scholars have succeeded merely in fixing the dates within the limits of two or even more centuries. It is obvious that in these circumstances a strict chronological arrangement is out of the question. It therefore becomes necessary to study the subject in the order of development of parallel schools and systems, and to rest the whole upon the frame-work of broad chronological divisions representing successive stages of its growth. Another result of the twofold tendency which has been noticed above, is that we are driven to interpret the Hindu theories of the State ordinarily without reference to the special conditions of time, space and personal experience, in which they doubtless had their origin.