A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c6.26

Language: English

c6.26.1

Such, then, are the lines along which the methodical treatment of Hindu political theories has to proceed. We have, in conclusion, to add a few words concerning the dates of the various original authorities that have been utilised in the preparation of this volume. The beginnings of political speculation among the Hindus, it will be observed later, occur in the Vedic Saṁhitās and the Brāhmaṇas. Regarding the dates of these works, the opinions of scholars vary so widely that it is impossible to mention one commanding general acceptance. On the whole, however, it appears desirable to place the works in question in the latter half of the second millennium before Christ and the earlier half of the first. The two following stages in the history of Hindu political thought, those of growth and maturity, are represented by a rich variety of systems consisting of the Brahminical Dharmasūtras as well as the Manusamhitā and the Mahābhārata, the Buddhist canonical and post-canonical treatises, and the literature of Arthaśāstra. The Dharmasūtras are assigned by Prof. Jolly to the fourth, fifth and sixth, centuries before Christ.† The Manusamhitā is placed by Bühler in the period between the second century B. C. and the second century A. D. ‡ The Mahābhārata, in the opinion of a leading Western authority, belongs to the period from the second century B. C. to the second century A. D., or with a wider margin, from the fourth century B. C. to the fourth century A. D.

c6.26.2

§ The Pali Buddhist canon for the most part falls within the limits of the fourth century B. C. ‖ The only important post-canonical work of the Buddhists which is treated in this volume is the Chatuhśatikā of Āryadeva assigned to the second century A.D.¶ The Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya is ascribed by the unanimous literary tradition of the Hindus to the famous minister of the founder of the imperial Maurya dynasty (acc. circa 322 B. C.). This view, however, while accepted by some Western scholars, has been rejected by others.∗ In the present work we have, without pinning our faith either to the Hindu tradition or to its Western criticism, placed the work at about the end of the fourth century before Christ. Hence the early schools and authors of the Arthaśāstra have been traced back to the immediately preceding period. The last stage in the evolution of Hindu political theories is marked by the treatises ascribed to Kāmandaka, Brihaspati and Śukra, the Jaina works on polity and law, as well as the later Brahminical canon consisting of the minor Smritis and the Purāṇas, the commentaries on the Smritis and the Digests of the Sacred Law. The work of Kāmandaka, as we have mentioned above, is still a chronological puzzle, but it may be placed with confidence in the period from 400 A. D. to 600 A. D.

c6.26.3

The Brihaspatisūtras is essentially an archaic work, but one of its historical allusions, it will be seen later, brings down its date in its existing form at least to the twelfth century A. D. Like the work of Kāmandaka the Śukranītisāra is of uncertain date, but reasons will be shown in the proper place for putting it down in the late mediaeval period. Of the Jaina works with which we are concerned, the Nītivākyāmṛitam is an aphorisitc treatise written by Somadeva who was the *protege* of a feudatory Chief subject to a Western Indian potentate Kriṣṇa III (fl. 10th century A. D.). The Laghu Arhannīti was written by the well-known Jaina scholar and divine Hemachandra (1089-1173 A.D.) at the behest of his royal patron Kumārapāla of Guzerat. As regards the later Brahminical canon, the minor Smṛitis are assigned by Prof. Jolly dates ranging from the fourth to the seventh centuries A. D.∗ To the same period belong the larger Purāṇas in their existing form. Of the great commentators on the Smṛitis, Medhātithi Vijñāneśvara and Aparārka belong, as will be shown in the sequel, to the tenth and the eleventh centuries after Christ, while Mādhava distinguished himself as the minister of the first king of the famous House of Vijaynagar in the early part of the 14th century. The two mediæval Digests of the Sacred Law that have been taken up for examination in this work are the Bhagavantabhāskara and the Vīramitrodaya.

c6.26.4

Both of these are voluminous works dealing with the manifold branches of Hindu law and ritual (āchāra). We are concerned with their political sections alone which are styled the Nītimayūkha and the Rājanītiprakāśa respectively.