Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c7.25

c7.25

It is interesting to note that the study of Hindu Politics was continued, like the study of Hindu Law, during Muhammadan times. I was agreeably surprised to find that the famous lawyers, the Nibandhakāras Chaṇḍeśvara, Mitra-Miśra and Nīlakaṇṭha, have compiled works on Hindu Politics. There is a Rājanīti-Ratnākara, and there is a Vīra-Mitrodaya Rāja-Nīti; similarly, there is also a Mayūkha, called Rāja-Nīti-Mayūkha.⁴ As to the value of these latter-day works, they, of course, are products of the decadent period. They may be classed together with the political science portions of the Purāṇas. The Nibandhakāras and the Purāṇas have no originality. The Purāṇas merely copy some chapters from some well-known authors, e.g., the *Agni-Purāṇa* borrows from an author called Pushkara.¹ The Hindu jurists of Muhammadan times, however, evince a strong desire for collecting materials, and the great value of their work consists in the extracts from authorities which are otherwise unknown. They are, moreover, witnesses to living traditions in ceremonial matters. Better materials, next in value only to regular treatises, are to be found in the Aphorisms and Codes of Dharma, under the chapter styled the 'Laws for the King,' which represent the constitutional laws as defined by Dharma-writers.