Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c9.s1.64

c9.s1.64

The primary commentaries in their turn were commented on by priests, scholars and lawyers. They were more prolific in the south where the stream of Hindu life and thought continued longer undisturbed. Bâlambhaṭṭa Ṭikâ or Lakṣmî Vyâkhyâna, the famous exposition of the Mitâkṣarâ, belongs probably to as late a period as the eighteenth century. But with the progress and consolidation of Muslim dominion, the political matter in this class of writings diminishes and ultimately almost disappears. The same remark applies to the numerous Dharmanibandhas which grew up everywhere, though more in the south than in the north. In the sixteenth century, Dalapati, minister of the Nizâmshâhî ruler of Ahmadnagar, wrote an enormous law-book called Nṛisiṃhaprasâda, divided into twelve sections but it has little to say of government. Already, in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, Jimûtavâhana had founded what is known as the Bengal school of Hindu law but he has hardly a place in a history of governmental theory. The absence of political reflections in the commentaries, sub-commentaries and expositions is all the more striking as the reputed authors of some of them were Râjâs or ministers. In the regulation of life, Hindu society tries to ignore the Muslim government and to legislate for itself. During the medieval period of Indian history, various selections from ancient writings were compiled. Mitra Miśra, in his Viramitrodaya dedicated to Bira Simha Bundelâ of Urchhâ (of the sixteenth century), gives copious extracts on coronation ceremonies, kingly and ministerial duties and so on from Brâhmaṇas, the Mahâbhârata, Smṛitis and Purâṇas, and interprets many of them in his own light.¹