Local Government in Ancient India c4.4

c4.4

In fact, a *rigid and stereotyped* chronological method is to a large extent inadequate for scientific interpretations of cultural history. In this field, the historic or genetic method is the supreme guide in our investigation, and a chronological framework is but ‘apparatus’ or ‘scaffolding’ to be used in the service of the scientific method. And it is often necessary in these investigations to pursue an upward as well as a downward course, in other words, to trace upwards existing institutions to their origin and source, so far as an unbroken line can be discerned, and at the same time to descend from the *fons et origo* to the later and broader ramifications, until, it may be, the stream is lost in the arid deserts of mediaeval chronology. By following this double line of ascent and descent, the historic method would gain in power, range and fruitfulness: it becomes an instrument of discovery, a new organon for the investigation of that historic continuity, which is the objective of all studies in evolution, whether biological or sociological.