Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c9.2.1

c9.2.1

The Dharma Sûtras. Both Manu and Kauṭalya are, in their present shape, posterior to the commencement of the Christian era, but they are the best representatives extant of the two dominant types of political thought which had arisen several centuries before. Both have preserved strata of earlier thought. The science of Dharma and the science of Artha had a good deal in common and, in strict theory, supplemented each other and formed a full series with the sciences of Kâma (desire and enjoyment) and Mokṣa (salvation). Thus was exhausted the fourfold object of human existence. But each of the sciences branched off from the parent stem and expanded in its own manner. Dharma and Artha often come together and, for instance, coalesce into a single system in the Mahâbhârata. But for a long while each retained its identity. The earliest literature of either was in Sûtra or aphoristic form, the very acme of brevity. The evidence of literature leaves no doubt that there existed once a Mânavadharma Sûtra, but it is lost. Perhaps, it was wholly incorporated in the Smṛiti of Manu. The Dharma Sûtras which have survived are, in theory, related to Śrauta Sûtras and Gṛihya Sûtras of the respective schools. In ancient India all learning was cultivated in schools and the results arrived at were given, generally, the stamp of schools which, in their turn, were attached to various Vedic sects. Such schools arose all over the country at different ages and differed from one another in details.