Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c4.2

c4.2

It was long an axiom of scholarship that ancient India had no contribution to political science. Professor Max Müller whose knowledge of Hindu literature was equalled only by his gift for generalisation declared that religion and philosophy formed the only sphere "where the Indian mind found itself at liberty to act, to create, and to worship."¹ A famous surveyor of ancient political thought starts with the conviction that "to the early Eastern mind the fact that a thing existed was sufficient of itself to show its right to be. Thus was effectually excluded all possibility of enquiries as to the relative perfection or justification for the existence of *de facto* social and political institutions."² But the literary and epigraphic material which the labours of scholars during the last forty years have brought together tells a different tale. It goes without saying that theology and metaphysics had an irresistible appeal to the Hindu mind, but they did not exhaust the whole field of research and speculation. Intellectual curiosity, once roused, could not but roam over the whole field of existence. Not to speak of the physical sciences, the Hindu mind grappled with handicrafts, cooking, dancing, music, erotics, and things which literature generally ignores. In all seriousness it tackled the problems which arise from the organisation of man in society.