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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10: Chapter VI. Pali Literature as a Source of Studies in Economics, Politics and Sociology (c. B.C. 600-300 A.C.)

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10

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English

Contents

Chapter VI. Pali Literature as a Source of Studies in Economics, Politics and Sociology (c. B.C. 600-300 A.C.)

The Secular Aspects of Pali Texts

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As documents for "Hindu" political, social and economic institutions and theories the importance of the Buddhist texts in Pali (c. B.C. 600-100 B.C.) is as great as that of the Vedic. It has been the custom to treat the Buddhist literature as a rule from the viewpoint of religion. Among the exceptions may be singled out the studies by Fick (*Die Sociale Gliederung im Nordöstlichen Indien zu Buddhas Zeit*, Kiel, 1897), as well as by Mrs. C. A. Rhys Davids ("Economic Condition in Ancient India") in the *Economic Journal*, London, September 1901,¹ in which some of the anthropological, economic and political data have been accorded a scientific treatment. But otherwise modern studies like those of, say, the German scholar Dahlke² or the American scholar Warren (*Buddhism in Translations*, Harvard Oriental Series, Cambridge, Mass, 1900) coming down to an international symposium like *Buddhistic Studies* (Calcutta 1931) have served but to propagate Buddhist literature as non-secular and unmateria-listic contributions from the Indian mind.

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¹ Incorporated subsequently in T. W. Rhys Davids: *Buddhist India* (London 1903).

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² *Buddhist Essays* transl. from the German by Bhikkhu Silacara (London 1908).

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The fate of Buddhist literature has been mainly that of Vedic literature in so far as its value as a source of sociological investigation is concerned. Each has in the main been relegated to the fields of religion and superstition. And the category, "sacred books," has served to isolate both the Vedic and the Buddhist texts from contacts with the "profane," i.e., secular, materialistic, economic and political studies. The one-sided approach, or rather the segregation, has hindered the proper evaluation of Buddhist as of Vedic literature as an expression of culture.

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The secularization of indology,³ as embodied in the first edition of the present work (Vol. I., Allahabad 1914) and *The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus* (Leipzig 1922), has therefore the same problem to solve in regard to the Buddhist texts as to the Vedic. There is of course one important difference between the two.

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³ See also the present author's "La Démocratie hindoue" (*Séances et Travaux de l'Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques*, Paris, 1921), *Die Lebensanschauung des Inders* (Leipzig 1933), "Istituzioni Politiche e Sociali dell'antico Popolo Indiano" (*Annali di Economia*, Milan, 1930), "Die Struktur des Volkes in der sozialwissenschaftlichen Lehre der Schukraniti" (*Kölner Vierteljahrshefte für Soziologie*, XI, i, Cologne 1931). In regard to the secularization of indology see, further, C. Formichi: "Pensiero e Azione nell' India Antica" (*Rivista Italiana di Sociologia*, Rome 1914), B. K. Sarkar: *The Futurism of Young Asia* (Berlin 1922), A. Hillebrandt: *Altindische Politik* (Jena 1923), pp. 131, J. J. Meyer: *Das altindische Buch vom Welt-und Staatsleben: Kauṭilya Arthaśāstra* (Leipzig 1926), A. B. Keith: *History of Sanskrit Literature* (Oxford 1928), pp. 450-451; P. Masson-Oursel: *L'Inde Antique et la Civilisation Indienne* (Paris 1933), pp. xii, 99-101, 128-129; B. Breloer: *Kauṭaliya-Studien III: Staatsverwaltung im alten Indien* (Leipzig 1934); H. Lüders: "Indien" (*Der Orient und Wir*, Berlin, 1935, pp. 74, 87, 92); H. von Glasenapp: "Lebensbejahung und Lebensverneinung bei den indischen Denkern" (*Jahrbuch der Schopenhauer-Gesellschaft*, XXII. Band, 1935) Cf. P. Sorokin: *Contemporary Sociological Theories* (New York 1928), in which the Hindu theories are discussed along with the non-Hindu in a thoroughly humanistic manner and the similarities between the East and the West brought out, pp. 4, 98, 197, 218-220, 358, 435, 601.

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Vedic literature introduces us to the atmosphere of sacrifice and ritual, of gods and hymns. In the Buddhist literature this atmosphere is virtually absent except by way of criticism, folklore, sarcasm, etc. If sacrifices, rituals, gods and hymns constitute religion, Buddhist literature, especially as embodied in the Pali texts, i.e., the pre-*Mahāyānic* strands, is a-religious. On the other hand, the *milieu* of this Buddhist literature is chiefly moral, having bearings on the personality, on man *vis-à-vis* society, on duties, on ideals. Thus considered, Buddhist literature furnishes by all means the most appropriate data for secularized indology. Buddhist texts are nothing but documents *par excellence* of positivism. No other source can be more valuable than these Pali treatises in an investigation into the positive background of Hindu sociology.

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Be it observed *en passant* that in the present study as in *Chinese Religion Through Hindu Eyes* (Shanghai 1916) the religion of Śākyasimha is not described as Buddhism until Buddha becomes the god of a pantheon. In other words, it is for *Mahāyānism* that "Buddhism" is reserved. *Hīnayāna* is accordingly described throughout as Śākyaism.

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And here it is interesting to call attention to the remarks of a Belgian scholar.⁴ "We have enough evidence to the effect," says, he, that in spite of the horse sacrifice, the *Upaniṣads*, Buddhism, caste and the Brāhmaṇa India was in many respects a country like all other countries, very living and progressive (*un pays comme tous les autres très vivant et progressif*), charmed with arts, festivals, literature, not morose, joking, occasionally Voltairian, easily amused and very entertaining.''

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⁴ L. de la Vallée Poussin: *Indo-européens et Indo-iraniens: L'Inde jusque vers 300 av. J. C.* (Paris, 1924), p. 251.

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It is but just to be oriented to the humanistic elements in the Buddhist *milieu* because as a rule too much has been made of its alleged pessimism.

Buddha-Kauṭalya Complex

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A great methodological difficulty in indology has arisen from the fact that the so-called "Hindu" sources are studied apart from the so-called Buddhist sources. The two have for a long time been treated in two water-tight and air-tight chambers. Somehow or other the impacts of the one group of studies upon the other have been few and far between, or, at any rate, not intimate enough. The result is that even among exponents of secularization in indology the obsession with the one source or the other is almost profound.

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It is time to recognise that the two sources require to be treated in one and the same atmosphere for parallel studies, comparisons, contrasts, interactions and so forth. The change in the methodology of study suggested here would indeed be just in keeping with the life. Vedic lore *vis-à-vis* Buddhist lore, Buddhism *vis-à-vis* other "isms," ancient, medieval and modern, did not constitute segregation in morals, manners and sentiments. Every bit of life represented some form or "process" of culture-contact, relationship or *Beziehung*, as we see analyzed in the sociological system of Simmel or von Wiese. The "division of labour" in Durkheim's sense or the "imitation," "opposition" and "adaptation" of Tarde's sociology cannot be overlooked in any epoch of Indian culture.

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For instance, the whole view of life would have to take Buddha, Kauṭalya and many others as influencing and supplementing one another. Kauṭalya completed Buddha,⁵ so to say. It was in the Kauṭalyan *milieu*, taken in the sense of a category of formal logic (for materialism in the generic sense), that Buddha flourished and *vice versa*. In modern studies, therefore, Kauṭalyalogy and Buddhalogy ought to go hand in hand. In other words, the students of the Sanskrit texts or of the Pali texts cannot afford to be ultra-specialists but must have to come together on a common platform for the reconstruction of "Hindu" culture. That culture in every epoch,—Vedic, post-Vedic, Buddhist, Maurya, post-Maurya and what not,—was always what may be described as an expression of the Kauṭalya-Buddha complex or the Buddha-Kauṭalya complex in its diverse dynamic phases.

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⁵ See the discussion on "Kauṭalya in Buddhist Perspectives" and "Kauṭalya and His Boswell", *Infra*, Ch. VIII.

The Dharma, Artha and Niti Śāstras of the Buddhists

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The Pali texts have to be envisaged in indology as belonging to the same category as the *Dharma-śāstras*, *Artha-śāstras* and *Nīti-śāstras*, so far as the social, political, legal and economic concepts are concerned. And in regard to the disquisitions on the mind, the soul, salvation and so forth and to their relations with the body, matter, elements, etc., the *Piṭakas* are, on the one hand, to be assimilated to the *Upaniṣads*, and, on the other, to the *Darśanas*.

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Finally, so far as the stories, legends and folk-lore go, the *Jātakas* have their natural "cognates" not only in treatises like the *Kathāsaritsāgara*, but the *Mahābhārata* itself. Exponents of secularization in indology must, therefore, attack the Buddhist Pali "canon" with the same logic as they have been applying to the so-called Hindu documents.

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In the atmosphere of Buddhist (Śākyan) *Dhamma*, righteousness, duty, etc. it is impossible to breathe anything different from the "virtue" and "justice" of Plato. Śākya's logic, again, is but a specimen of the Socratic dialectic, and his dialogues correspond to the dialogues of Plato and the Sophists. In the political speculations of mankind Śākya and his apostles from Ānanda and Upali to Moggaliputta Tissa of the *Kathāvatthu* fame (c. 250 B.C.) and Nāgasena of the *Milinda Pañha* (c. 150 A.C.) deserve the same analysis from modern researchers as those of Socrates and post-Socratic Sophists and other thinkers of ancient Greece.⁶

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⁶ Translation in the Sacred Books of the East Series Vols. XXV and XXXVI (1890, 1894) by T. W. Rhys Davids under the title of the *Questions of King Milinda*. See B. C. Sen: "Studies in the Buddhist Jatakas" (*Journal of the Department of Letters*, Calcutta University, 1930) and R. N. Mehta: "Crime and Punishment in the Jatakas" (*IHQ.*, September, 1936).

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While in the *milieu* of Śākya's lecture and dialogues, students of Hindu politics might easily be reminded of the ethical atmosphere of Plato's *Republic*. Some of the more important moral categories touched upon in that Greek work may be enumerated below:

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| Book I. | Justice, friends, enemies, good men, bad men, good policy, soul, function, virtue, happiness. |

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Book II. Worldly success, professions, guardians, education, dignity of gods, myths.

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Book III. Future life, forms of stories, music, spirited, philosophic, superior class, possessed of nothing.

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Book IV. Three classes, no innovations, Delphian Apollo, wisdom, courage, temperance, justice, absence of meddling, appetite, reason, soul, injustice.

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Book V. Functions of women, philosophers, opinion, science.

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Book VI. True philosophic disposition, corrupting effect of the contact with the world, politicians of the day, highest studies, good, visible world, intellectual world, four mental states.

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Book VII. Purpose of education, from the sensuous to the real, the invisible, the eternal.

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Book VIII. Everything that has had a beginning is liable to decay, love of honour, love of wealth.

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Book IX. Three qualities of the soul, three species of pleasure, reasonable, "the man, the lion and the serpent in human personality", harmony in social relations, just man, perfect commonwealth in heaven.

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Book X. Poetry weakens the mind, hymns in honour of the gods, good man, immortality of the soul, dispensations of Providence, rewards after death.

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It is not necessary to establish an equation between Śākya and Plato on all fronts and in all items. But the student of the *Suttas* (*Nikāyas*) will have to feel that Socrates and the post-Socratics or Plato and his precursors have constantly to be remembered in Buddhistic studies. By all means those Greek philosophers are chronologically the contemporaries of Śākya and the Śākyan apostles. What is more important, Śākya and the Śākyans are comrades and colleagues of almost the same school as the Greeks in the profoundest problem of social politics, namely, the remaking of man, such as in recent times has been placed once more in the forefront of moral thought by all "idealists," e.g., Hocking, Redanò, Koellreutter, Lasbax, del Vecchio and others.

Buddhist Institutions and Ideals vis-à-vis Vedic Complex

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The Śākyan milieu is, in the first place, semi-Vedic or semi-Brāhmaṇic, representing the phases of culture-contacts between the so-called Aryans or Brāhmaṇized Indians and non-Aryans (or non-Brāhmaṇized Indians)⁷ as well as, to a certain extent, the continuations of perhaps neglected aspects of Vedic culture. In Śākya's life and thought as well as in those of the Śākyan missionaries and householders Vedic ideology cannot therefore be entirely overlooked.

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⁷ J. W. Hauer: *Der Vratya* (Stuttgart 1927), pp. 5-6, 55, 60, 308-310, B. Saletore: *The Wild Tribes in Indian History* (Lahore 1935); De la Vallée Poussin: *Indo-Européens et Indo-Iraniens: L'Inde vers jusque 300 av. J.* (Paris 1924), pp. 312-314; E. J. Rapson: "Peoples and Languages" (*Cambridge History of India*, Vol. I, 1922, pp. 40-56); A. Hillebrandt: *Ritualliteratur* (*Grundriss der indoarischen Philologie und Altertumskunde*, III. Band, 2. Heft).

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De la Vallée Poussin is, generally speaking, right in his estimate to the effect that Śākyaism arose in a profound Brāhmaṇized region where the influence of Brahmā was preponderant. The religious like of the Śākyan is called *Brahmacharya*. The Śākyan saint is the "true *Brāhmaṇa*." Śākyan saints are the "*Āryas*." The four Śākyan truths are the "*Ārya* truths."

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In the age of the *Upaniṣads* and Śākyaism, says he, the different systems exploited, each in its own manner, a certain common fund which was very rich but of which our knowledge is incomplete.

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In the second place, the Śākyan *milieu* is somewhat anti-Vedic or anti-Brāhmaṇic in ideology and institutions too. To this extent the life and thought of Śākya and the Śākyans embody distinctively new aspects of culture and are therefore to be appraised as "supplements" to Vedic ideology and institutions. So far as these aspects are concerned, the Vedic and the anti-Vedic together constitute one Indian culture-complex. The place of Śākyan institutions and theories in a comprehensive study of Hindu politics, economics and sociology is therefore profound. The Buddhist (Śākyan) texts in Pali consequently have to be placed alongside of the Brāhmaṇical texts for an adequate survey of "Hindu" socio-political literature.

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Thirdly, for later periods, say, from Aśvaghoṣa downwards the Buddhist *milieu* and the Brāhmaṇic-Hindu *milieu* almost approach each other in many details.

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Still later, the common ground of *Mahāyāna-cum-Tantrism* and Purāṇic-Hinduism is quite extensive. These aspects of Buddhism may be called semi-“Hindu,” as has been done in my *Chinese Religion Through Hindu Eyes* and *Folk-Element in Hindu Culture* (London 1917). Altogether, no study of “Hindu” culture in any of its phases of evolution can pretend to be fair which does not devote simultaneous attention to Buddhist and non-Buddhist sources.

Śākyan Positivism

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Interest in the immediate present as contrasted with the past and the future is a dominant element in Śākya the Buddha’s positivism. This finds expression in such *Suttas* as the *Bhaddekaratta*, the *Ānanda-Bhaddekaratta*, the *Mahākaccana-Bhaddekaratta*, the *Lomasakangiya-Bhaddekaratta*, etc. of the *Majjhima Nikāya* of the *Sutta Piṭaka*.

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The following is to be found in the *Bhaddekaratta-Sutta*:⁸

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⁸ *Majjhima Nikaya* ed. by R. Chalmers, Vol. III (London 1899), p. 187 (No. 131).

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*Atītaṁ nānvāgameyya, nappaṭikaṅkhe anāgataṁ;*
*Yad atītam pahinan taṁ, appattañca anāgataṁ.*
*Paccuppannañ ca yo dhammaṁ tattha tattha vipassati,*
*Asaṁhīraṁ asaṁkuppaṁ taṁ vidvā manubrūhaye.*

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*Ajj’ eva kiccam ātappaṁ; ko jaññā maraṇaṁ suve?*
*Na hi no saṁgaran tena mahāsenena maccunā*
*Evaṁ vihāriṁ ātāpiṁ ahorattam atanditaṁ*
*Taṁ ve bhaddekaratto ti santo ācikkhate munīti.*

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Don't pursue the past
Long not for the future,
The past is dead,
Not yet realized is the future.

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Whoever examines the present conditions
exactly as they really are
Should ascertain the invincible and unshakable
strive after it.

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Exertions are then to be made today ;
Who knows death may come to-morrow ?
Not possible any pact with Death and his army.

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Who exerts thus night and day ceaselessly,
He is called *bhaddekaratta* (devoted to the good)
He is the real saint.

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The woman with her joys and woes forms the subject-mater of the *Mātugāma-Saṃyutta* of the *Saṃyutta Nikāya*. The definition of *Nibbāna*⁹ as the destruction of lust, hatred and illusion and its attainment by the eightfold path are described in the *Jambukhadaka Saṃyutta*, the *Samandaka Saṃyutta* and the *Asaṅkhata Saṃyutta*. The eightfold path as consisting in right view, right aim, right speech, right action, right living, right exertion, right mindfulness and right concentration is the special topic of the *Magga-Saṁyutta*. The four truths, namely, suffering, its origin, its destruction, and the path leading to its destruction have been described in the *Sacca Saṁyutta*.

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⁹ On the latest controversies in the interpretation of Nibbana (Nirvana) see Suzuki : *Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism*; Yamakami : *Systems of Buddhistic Thought* (Calcutta 1912); De la Vallée Poussin : *Nirvana* (Paris 1925); H. von Glasenapp : *Brahma und Buddha* (Berlin 1926); T. Stcherbatsky : *The Central Conception of Buddhism* (London 1923); *The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana* (Leningrad 1927); Keith : *The Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon* (Oxford 1923); N. Dutt : *Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism in its Relation to Hinayana* (London 1930); J. Przyluski : *Le Bouddhisme* (Paris 1932); P. Masson-Oursel : *L'Inde Antique et la Civilisation Indienne* (Paris 1933).

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The *Dhammapada*¹⁰ and the *Suttanipāta*, two of the twenty treatises in verse belonging to the *Khuddaka Nikāya* of the *Sutta Piṭaka* introduce us further to the essentially activistic atmosphere (*appamāda*) of Śākya's fundamental tenets. Every verse in these two noble collections is an admonition to the human spirit to "energize" and to "behave." Most of the teachings are suited to monks and householders alike.

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¹⁰ Translation of *Dhammapada* in the Sacred Books of the East (Oxford) Vol. X.

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The books are two of the world's profoundest treatises on meliorism or humanism in morals with reference to the remaking of personality and the reconstruction of society. And the shortest catechism of Śākyan ethics is to be found in the *Khuddakapāṭha* of the same *Nikāya*.¹¹

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¹¹ B. C. Law: *A History of Pali Literature*, Vol. I (Calcutta 1933), pp. 153, 177-179, 222, 232.

Śākya as Remaker of Man

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In every system of political and social philosophy, idealistic or realistic, and ancient, medieval or modern, the problems of personality cannot but occupy a prominent place.¹² It may not be clear, except to the idealists like Jellinek who believe in the "autolimitation" of the state, as to whether ethics is to be treated as a part of politics or politics as a part of ethics. To such "monists" the problem does not exist. But even to realists the close relations between the two, functional, causal, psychological or otherwise, pragmatic as they are, bring before our eyes an extensive common ground of activities and norms. Naturally, therefore, every individual who deals with "values" and is therefore a "futurist," every moralist who is trying to transform Nature and the world by the "creative urges" of the spirit, every educational scheme that is looking forward to the "remaking" of man or societal reconstruction, and every propaganda that is furnished with an ethical bias, social message or "spiritual" content belong, as a matter of course, to the domain of political speculation. Politics can then annex virtually the whole of Śākyan categories in a generic manner to itself.

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¹² Re the place of Buddhist thought in Hindu political institutions and theories see the present author's "*On some Methods and Conclusions in Hindu Politics*" in the *Indian Historical Quarterly* (Calcutta, March 1927). Cf. also his *Political Philosophies Since 1905* (Madras 1926). See W. E. Hocking: *Man and the State* (New Haven 1926), pp. 190-191, and *Types of Philosophy* (New York 1929), pp. 441-442; U. Redanò: *Lo Stato Etico* (Florence 1927), pp. 266-278; O. Koellreutter: *Allgemeine Staatslehre* (Tübingen, 1933), pp. 6-10; G. del Vecchio: *Etica, Diritto e Stato* (Rome 1934), pp. 7, 24, and *La Crisi dello Stato* (Rome 1934), pp. 37-40 for different idealistic standpoints of modern thought in regard to the relations between morality and politics. See also Hubert: "Le Problème Moral" (*Revue Philosophique*, Paris, November-December 1934, pp. 339-342, March-April, 1935, pp. 228-229), Tazerout: "La Pensée Politique de Moeller van den Bruck" (*Revue Internationale de Sociologie*, January-February, 1936, pp. 71-76), *La Philosophie Tchéchoslovaque Contemporaine* (Prague, 1935), chs. on Masaryk, pp. 19-49, R. R. Ergang: *Herder and the Foundations of German Nationalism* (New York 1931), Moeller van den Bruck: *Das dritte Reich* (Hamburg 1931), Capek: *Masaryk Tells His Story* (London 1934); H. E. Barnes: *History of Western Civilization* (New York), Vol. II (1935) pp. 1067-1068.

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From Pythagoras to Socrates, from the Sophists to Seneca, from Jesus to Luther, from Calvin to Kant, and from Renouvier, Fichte, Carlyle and Mazzini to Dewey, Hobhouse, Masaryk and Moeller van den Bruck,—each one is occupied with *le problème moral* in its comprehensive sense as analysed by Huber. It is the drame de *l'Esprit*, the drama of the spirit, in which each one is interested. This is the drama which is "the more serious because it is the more subtle, which although less apparent in a material form affects nevertheless the entire human organism from within." The moralizings of Śākyasimha (B.C. 623-543) and of the Sākyan missionaries as lectures to the human spirit possess the same significance for political thought as those of their European contemporaries, Socrates, the Sophists and others down to Plato (B.C. 430-347) and his successors of ancient Europe.

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The foundations of political action are to be found in these talks of Śākya and speculations of the Sākyans, directed, as they are, to the evocation of the *seelische Kraft* (strength of the soul) and energizing of the "will" or transformation of the "latent energies" into the kinetic, of which Haushofer speaks in *Jenseits der Grossmächte*.

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Śākya's lectures to the Vajjis on the "seven conditions of welfare," like many of his other sayings to individuals and groups, may in a general manner be somewhat compared to Fichte's *Reden an die Deutsche Nation* (*Addresses to the German People*, 1808), although intended for other races and regions and for the nineteenth century. As contributions to political thought, broadly considered, they deserve a proper recognition in a study of *Nīti* or *Artha*, i.e., political morals.

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Historically, Śākya's moralizings or addresses to the people of Magadha can be taken to a certain extent as continuations of the "harangues" of the Vedic¹³ poets to their *viṣ* and represent the same mentality as embodied in the dicta of the *Dharmaśāstras* or the stories of the *Mahābhārata* and later literature.

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¹³ H. Zimmer: *Altindisches Leben* (Berlin 1879), pp. 103-104, 118-122, 127-128, Whitney and Lanman: *Atharva Veda Saṁhita* (Cambridge, Mass., 1905), First Half, pp. 87-88, A. B. Keith: *Rig Veda Brahmaṇas* (Cambridge, Mass., 1920), pp. 329-330.

Law and Constitution in the Vinaya

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The *Mahāvagga* and the *Chullavagga* are first class documents of institutional literature in the field of public life and social polity.¹⁴ Political science can derive much data from these *Vinaya* texts both from the viewpoint of institutions as well as from that of theories. The theories of the Śākyan monks in regard to the problems of authority, justice, liberty, individuality, democracy and so forth may be gleaned by a careful student of political philosophy out of many passages in this literature. As documents of *droit constitutionnel* bearing on the ecclesiastical organization of the Śākyans these treatises in Pali furnish, besides, ample evidences to the legal acumen and logical sense of Śākya the Buddha or rather of the Śākyan stalwarts. The *Suttavibhaṁga’s* discussions about theft, murder etc., are fine contributions to criminology.

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¹⁴ The present author’s "Ecclesiastical Polity of Old Asia" in the *Vedic Magazine* (Hardwar, July 1920), *The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus* (Leipzig 1922), p. 158. See the English translations of the *Vinaya Texts* in the Sacred Books of the East Series (Oxford).

The Social Institutions and Theories of the Nikāyas

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The doctrine adumbrated in the different *Nikāyas* of the *Sutta Piṭaka* must not be considered to be all psychological, metaphysical, theological, theocratic, eschatological or the like. A good deal of these dialogues of the *Dīgha Nikāya*¹⁵ division, for instance, deals with socio-economic and socio-political questions. Among other topics, *Khattavijjā* (the science of Kṣatriya), polity, treaties, wars, etc., are discussed in the *Brahmajāla-sutta*, which, as a work on the *sīlas* or moral precepts, thus approaches in the miscellaneous character of its contents almost a *Śukranīti* or a *Yuktikalpataru* of "Hindu" (Brāhmaṇic) literature, or, say, any of the *Dharmaśāstras*. Caste problems, the position of the Brāhmaṇa, as well as sacrifices both in their orthodox, Brāhmaṇic (Vedic) presentations as well as in the "rational" interpretations of Śākya the Buddha constitute, among other things, the subject matter of the *Ambaṭṭha*, the *Soṇadaṇḍa*, the *Kūṭadaṇḍa* and the *Tevijja Suttas*. In many of these rationalizings Śākya continues, be it remarked *en passant*, but the corresponding strands of old Vedic and contemporary Upaniṣadic thought (*e.g.*, the *Chhāndogya Upaniṣad*).

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¹⁵ See the translations of the *Dīgha Nikāya Suttas* in the Sacred Books of the Buddhists (London) under the title of *Dialogues of the Buddha* (tr by T. W. Rhys Davids, subsequently with the collaboration of Mrs. C. A. Rhys Davids); N. N. Law: "Early Buddhism and the Laity" in *Indian History and Culture* (London 1925).

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From the schedule of topics on which, according to the *Paṭṭhapāda Sutta*¹⁶, the *Paribbājakas* or *Wanderlehrer* and "sophists", so to say, used to hold discourses, one is introduced to the intellectual *milieu* that held political science in solution. The celebrated "seven conditions of welfare" for a community as well as the duties of householders etc., are proclaimed and discussed in the *Mahāparinibbāna Suttānta*. The majesty of the "greatest king", his glorious capital and his palace are described in the *Mahāsudassana Suttānta*, which can bear comparison for certain purposes with any of the Utopias of world thought in the domain of spirituality, "righteousness," etc. The "seven treasures" conceived in this milieu of Śākyan righteousness have been traced by Sénart in *La Legende du Bouddha* to the Vedic hymns. The "ideal Brāhmaṇa", the "assembly hall" of the gods, etc., are among the topics discussed in the *Mahāgovinda Suttānta*, in which, besides, the geography of India is described according to the ideas of the time. The "ideal world-monarch" is the subject of the *Chakkavatti Sīhanāda Suttānta*, which, further deals with the problems of life, prosperity and longevity. Universal education is dealt with in the *Lohichcha Sutta*, and birth, old age and death in the *Mahānidāna Suttānta*. Within the general frame-work of righteousness the *Agganna Suttānta* may be described as a general treatise of sociology, dealing as it does with the evolution of the world, man and society as well as the problems of the four castes. The thirty-two marks of the "Superman" are discussed in the *Lakkhana Suttānta*. The entire gamut of *Beziehungen* of man in society is the subject matter of the *Singalovada Suttānta*, which may be described as a comprehensive treatise on *gihivinaya* (householder's duties) or domestic and social ethics.

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¹⁶ Chapter on "Teachers of Political Morals" in B. M. Barua: *A History of Pre-Buddhistic Indian Philosophy* (Calcutta 1921), pp. 347-353; Chapter on "Wandering Teachers" in B. C. Law: *Historical Gleanings* (Calcutta 1922), pp. 13-15.

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The crimes such as burglary, robbery, adultery etc., as well as punishments like flogging, bastinado, bludgeoning, mutilation of hands and feet, tortures of the saucepan, boiling oil, etc., come in for treatment in the *Mahāduk-* *khakkhandha Sutta* of the *Majjhima Nikāya*. The pretentions of the Brāhmaṇas to social superiority and other caste questions are discussed in the *Assalāyana Sutta*, the *Chanki Sutta*, the *Esukari Sutta* and the *Vaseṭṭha Sutta* of the same *Nikāya*. The teachings on unity and concord are to be found in the *Samāgama Sutta*.¹⁷

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¹⁷ See the translations of the *Majjhima Nikaya Sutta* in the Sacred Books of the Buddhist Series (London), Vol. II (1927), pp. 84-102, 139-144.

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Methods of punishment and criminal justice are described in the *Dukanipāta* of the *Anguttara Nikāya*.

Asoka's Political Philosophy

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In a survey of Hindu political literature Asoka's Edicts cannot but have an important place. As a rule, they are ransacked by indologists for references to political history. Recently these have been attacked also for the study of administrative institutions. Nay, the problems of Kauṭalyalogy have compelled scholarship to attempt discovering the points of terminological contact between the *Arthaśāstra* and the Edicts.¹⁸

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¹⁸ R. K. Mookerji: "*Parallelism* between *Aśoka's Edicts* and Kauṭalya Arthaśāstra" in the *Proceedings of the Fifth Oriental Conference*, Lahore, 1928, pp. 329-347.

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But it is necessary to remember that Asoka like Marcus Aurelius was a philosopher also. It is not necessary to be positive about the exact nature of the relations of Asoka's *Dhamma* to the *Dharma* or Hindu *Dharmaśāstras*, on the one hand, and the *sila* taught by Śākya and his apostles on the other.¹⁹ The edicts do not betray any reference to *Nirvāṇa* or *Sunyatā*, *Anātma* or *Dukkha*. But there cannot be any doubt about the fact that as promulgator of the Edicts Asoka was holding forth as a “remaker” of man in the same manner as Socrates and Śākya, bent upon generating a new “social metabolism” such as might give rise to a new *Gestalt* (form-complex) in human relationships.

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¹⁹ N. Dutt: *Aspects of Hinayana Buddhism in its Relation to Mahayana* (London 1930) pp. 19-21.

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Like the copperplate inscriptions these Edicts are, first and foremost, specimens of literature. And although mainly institutional in origin or nature, this literature can be made to yield theories. Much of ordinary ethical propaganda it undoubtedly contains. But as an Empirebuilder Asoka tried to impress upon his people the conception of administrative uniformity. He was, besides, an exponent of the conception of the “welfare-state”, something like *lo stato educatore* of Redanò. It is through the Edicts that such political categories of the Hindus have found fair expression.

The Dynamics of Buddhist Thought

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Like the *Saṃhitās* of Vedic texts the *Piṭakas* (Baskets) of Pali texts represent principles of classification, *i.e.*, grouping according to common subjects. In each group or *Piṭaka*, therefore, as we have to-day, are to be found works composed during diverse periods. In the present form the three “Baskets” are taken to have been finally closed in the last quarter of the first century B.C., when they were committed to writing in Ceylon during the reign of Vattagamani. And since some of the sermons and dialogues are supposed to contain the exact words of Śākya himself, the oldest portions of the Buddhist texts can be traced back to his life time (B.C. 563-483), say, *ca* 500 B.C. The entire literature then covers nearly half a millennium. The problem of dating the texts is therefore not a simple one.

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The canon in its entirety is being exhibited below :

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I. *Vinaya Piṭaka*²⁰ (Basket containing manuscripts of *Vinaya* or discipline and administration), rules alleged to have been declared by Śākya the Buddha himself and presented occasionally through the medium of legends, folklore etc.

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²⁰ Translations in the Sacred Books of the East Series (Oxford).

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1. *Sutta Vibhaṁga* i.e. explanations of the Rules : 227 rules of the *Pātimokkha* (440 B.C.) i. *Pārājika* : Offences for which the punishment is expulsion from the order. ii. *Pacittiya* : Offences for which the punishment is some expiation.
2. *Khandakas* i.e. Treatises in Set Fragments (250 B.C.). i. *Mahāvagga* : "larger division." ii. *Chullavagga* : "smaller division."
3. *Parivāra patta* : a digest of the other parts of the *Vinaya*.
4. *Pātimokkha*.

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II. *Sutta Piṭaka* (Basket of discourses concerning the Doctrine), mainly in the form of speeches or dialogues of Buddha.

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1. *Digha Nikāya*²¹ ("long discourses") : 34. i. *Silakkhandha* ii. *Mahāvagga* iii. *Patheya* or *Pātikavagga* 2. *Majjhima Nikāya*²² ("medium discourses": 152.
3. *Samyutta Nikāya* ("kindred sayings): 56. i. *Sagathavagga* ii. *Nidānavagga* iii. *Khandhavagga* iv. *Salayatana vagga* v. *Mahāvagga*
4. *Anguttara* or *Ekuttara Nikāya*²³: *Nipātas* i. *Eka nipāta* ii. *Duka nipāta* iii. *Tika nipāta* iv. *Chatukka nipāta* v. *Panchaka nipāta* vi. *Chhakka nipāta* vii. *Sattaka nipāta* viii. *Aṭṭhaka nipāta* ix. *Navaka nipāta* x. *Dasaka nipāta* xi. *Ekādasaka nipāta*
5. *Khuddaka Nikāya* (mostly in verse): 20 i. *Khuddakapāṭha* ii. *Dhammapada* (250 B.C.) iii. *Udāna* iv. *Itivuttaka* v. *Sutta nipāta* vi. *Vimāna vatthu* vii. *Peta vatthu* viii. *Thera gāthā* ix. *Therīgāthā* x. *Jātakas* (c 250 B.C.) xi. *Mahāniddesa* xii. *Chulla niddesa* xiii. *Patisambhida magga* xiv. *Apadāna* xv. *Buddhavamśa* xvi. *Chariyāpiṭaka* xvii. *Milindapañha* (150 A.C.) xviii. *Suttasamgha* xix. *Petakopadesa* xx. *Nettipakaraṇa*.

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²¹ Translation by T. W. and C. A. Rhys Davids in the Sacred Books of the Buddhists Series (London).

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²² Translations by Lord Chalmers in the Sacred Books of the Buddhists Series (London).

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²³ Translation of the first three sections by E. R. Gooneratna (1913). The fourth section has been translated by A. D. Jayasunder under the title of *The Book of the Numerical Sayings* (Anguttara Nikaya) or "Suttas According to Number," Madras 1925.

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III. *Abhidhamma Piṭaka* (Basket of Transcendental Doctrine) chiefly in the form of questions and answers, dealing with the topics of the *Suttapiṭaka*.

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| i | *Dhammasaṃgani* (350 B.C.). | iv | *Puggala pannati*. |
| | | v | *Dhātukathā*. |
| ii | *Vibhaṃga*. | vi | *Yamaka*. |
| iii | *Kathāvatthu*. | vii | *Patthana*. |

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During these four or five centuries six Buddhist Councils (three in India and three in Ceylon) were held. At each Council the texts were being settled. This fact ought to place the chronology of the Śākyan texts on a secure footing. But the reports of the Councils themselves are anything but uniform and fail to assure any precision, especially in regard to the Śākyan texts. The result is the emergence of a question in regard to each and every document of the Śākyan (Buddhist) Canon in Pali.²⁴ Like the authenticity of Plato's dialogues in the West the authenticity of Sākya's dialogues and sermons has long been the subject of controversy in indology.

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²⁴ B. C. Law: *A History of Pali Literature* (Calcutta 1933), Chapters on "Chronology of the Pali Canon" and "Canonical Pali Literature," pp. 11-15, 40-42, 46, 88, 274-275, 305, 326. See R. C. Majumdar: "Buddhist Councils" in *Buddhistic Studies*, Calcutta, 1931. For the evolution of the schools of Buddhism see the chart in N. Dutt: *Early History of the Spread of Buddhism and the Buddhist Schools* (London 1925) pp. 224-225.

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The relative chronology of the above texts between *c.* 500 B.C. and *c.* 100 A.C. can be made out from the following scheme :

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1. The simple statements of Śākya the Buddha's doctrine now found are identical words in paragraphs or verses recurring in all the books (*c.* B.C. 500).

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2. Episodes found in identical words in two or more of the existing books.

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3. The *Sīlas*, the *Pārāyana* groups of sixteen poems without the prologue, the *Aṭṭhaka* group of four or sixteen poems, the *Sikkhāpadas*.

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4. The *Dīgha*, Vol. I., the *Majjhima*, the *Saṃyutta*, the *Aṅguttara*, and the earlier *Pātimokkha* code of 152 rules.

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5. The *Dīgha*, Vols. II and III., the *Thera-Therī-gāthā*, the collection of 500 *Jātakas*, the *Suttavibhaṅga*, the *Paṭisambhidāmagga*, the *Puggalapaññatti* and the *Vibhaṅga* (c. 400 B.C.).

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6. The *Mahāvagga* and the *Chullavagga*, the *Pātimokkha* code now complete in 227 rules, the *Vimānavatthu* and the *Petavatthu*, the *Dhammapada*, and the *Kathāvatthu* (c. 250 B.C.).

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7. The *Chullaniddesa*, the *Mahāniddesa*, the *Udāna*, the *Itivuttaka*, the *Sutta Nipāta*, the *Dhātukathā*, the *Yamaka* and the *Paṭṭhāna*.

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8. The *Buddhavamsa*, the *Cariyāpiṭaka* and the *Apadāna*.

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9. The *Pettakopadesa*.

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10. The *Khuddakapāṭha*.

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Evidently the question of chronology, relative although, is open in regard to many treatises as well as parts of treatises.²⁵

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²⁵ T. W. Rhys Davids: *Buddhist India* (London 1911) Appendix to Ch. X. Chronological Table of Buddhist Literature from the Buddha's Time to the Time of Aśoka, p. 188. This has been modified in B. C. Law: *History of Pali Literature* (Calcutta 1933) Vol. I. p. 42, which is followed in the present work.

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Śākyaism was all the time moving from region to region and race to race. In the process of these mobilizations it gradually lost sight of the very language in which Śākya and the Śākyan apostles had taught, namely, Pali. The Pan-Indian language of culture, Sanskrit, was accepted by the Śākyans and Buddhists of the new epochs on account of the exigencies of their propaganda and annexed to their conquests. And so Buddhist philosophy, moral, social or political, came to have a vast literature in Sanskrit. Nothing demonstrates the vitality and strenuousness of the Buddhistic ideologies more than this Sanskritization of Śākyaism and the utilization of the "Hindu" (Brāhmaṇical) paraphernalia in order to maintain its usefulness under altered conditions.

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The diverse strands of Buddhism may be followed easily in the following, rather wide and elastic chronological scheme:²⁶

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²⁶ N. Dutt: *Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism in its Relation to Hinayana* (London 1930), ch. I. pp. 6, 11, 16, 36, 43, 45.

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1. Early or Pure *Hīnayāna* Buddhism (c. B.C. 450-350). This Buddhism has for its records the *Vinaya* and the *Nikāyas* (*Sūtras*) in Pali.
2. Mixed *Hīnayāna* Buddhism (c. B.C. 350-100). This is the Buddhism held in solution among the diverse leaders or cholars such as arose about a century after Śākya the Buddha's death. This pluralistic development of Buddhism took place during the epoch of the Mauryas. It is during this period that the third *Piṭaka* of the orthodox Buddhists, the *Abhidhamma*, was mainly compiled. This is the epoch *par excellence* of the *Jātakas* and *Avadānas*, brought into existence, as they were, for the purpose of democratizing and popularizing the teachings of Śākya.

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These two strands constitute not so much Buddhism as Śākyaism in the present author’s terminology.

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3. Early *Mahāyāna* Buddhism (c. B.C. 100-300 A.C.). This is the Buddhism of the ideals associated with the *Bodhisattva* and the *Pāramitā* which had been initiated in the *Avadānas*. The *Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajnāpāramitā* is taken to have been compiled some time in the first century B.C. The *Kulturkampf* or the conflict of cultures between the old and the new is the chief feature of this period. Nāgārjuna, Aśvaghoṣa and Asaṃga are some of the leading exponents of the new as against the old in the evolution of “social metabolism.”

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In this the third strand we have Buddhism proper; and the texts of this Buddhism are to be found not in Pali but in Sanskrit.

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The sociological data in the Buddhist, like those in the other “Hindu,” documents introduce us therefore to the wealth of categories in the subversion of “social determinism,” closed systems or absolutism of monists as prevalent, for instance, in modern times from Hegel to Durkheim. It is essentially the atmosphere of “social mobility” and the “perpetual increment of life upon itself,” such as is engendered by the “initiatives of the will,” the creative urges of the individuals and *le volontà individuali*, in which we move about in the midst of Pali (as well as Sanskrit-Buddhist) texts. The fundamental

Non-Śākyan and Anti-Śākyan Forces

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It is in this "pluralistic universe" of culture that the teachings of Śākya and the Śākyan stalwarts, the stories of the *Jātakas* and the messages of the Pali texts are to be read. India was larger than all these combined. In other words, there were men, institutions and movements in India such as may have cared to ignore altogether the entire Śākyan (Buddhist) encyclopaedia.

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According to the Śākyan (Buddhist) scheme of life and thought, indeed, certain "well known" "heads of orders" and "teachers of schools" were described as heretical. They are enumerated as follows in the *Samānaphala Sutta* of the *Digha Nikāya*:¹
1. Purāṇa Kassapa
2. Makkhali Gosāla
3. Ajita Kesakambali
4. Pakudha Kachchāyana
5. Sanjaya Belatthiputta
6. Niganṭha Nāthaputta.

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¹ B. C. Law: "Six Heretical Teachers" in *Buddhistic Studies* (Calcutta 1931) p. 73.

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At least two of the above six are today well established in Indian thought as having had a powerful influence in the formation of the culture of the so-called Buddhist India. One is Nāthaputta and the other Gosāla.

Jaina Teachings

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Mahāvīra is known as *Nāthaputta* (the son of the Nāthas or Jnātris of Kundanagara near Vaisāli) in the Śākyan *Majjhima Nikāya*.²

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² K. P. Jain: "Mahāvīra and Buddha" in *Buddhistic Studies* (1931) pp. 126-127.

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The Jaina tradition represents Gosāla as a disciple of Mahāvīra. But a modern view³ seeks to show that Gosāla was one of the teachers of Mahāvīra. It is also believed that among the precursors or contemporaries of Mahāvīra and Śākya the Buddha some of the formative forces of Jainism and Buddhism are to be found not only in the philosophy of Gosāla but also in the scepticism of Sanjaya. Non-Śākyan thought was then a powerful factor of the times.

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³ B. M. Barua: *History of Pre-Buddhistic Indian Philosophy* (Calcutta 1921), pp. 381-382, 402. The history of Gosāla as given in the *Bhagavati*, *Saya* XV, *Udesa* I. can be seen in Engl. transl. (by A.F.R. Hoernle) in *The Uvasagadasao* or the Religious Profession of an Uvasaga (Bibliotheca Indica Series, Calcutta 1888).

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Śākya the Buddha is even alleged to have lived the life of a Jaina *muṇi* (ascetic) at a preparatory stage of his spiritual career. Nay, there is a tradition that Śākya was actually ordained as Muṇi Buddhakīrti by the Jaina saint Pihitaśrava.⁴

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⁴ Jacobi: *Gaina Sutras* Pt. 1. pp. 39-41 (S.B.E.), K. P. Jain: "Mahāvīra and Buddha" in *Buddhistic Studies* (1931) pp. 118, 125, 130.

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The relations between the two, although separate from and independent of each other, were very close.⁵

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⁵ P. V. Bapat: "A comparative study of a few Jain Ardhamāgadhī texts with the texts of the Buddhist Pali Canon" in the *Sir Ashutosh Memorial Volume* (Patna 1926-28).

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The title *Tathāgata* was accorded to Śākya the Buddha as well as to Mahāvīra.

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The coincidences and affinities are so great that Weber used to consider the Jainas to be merely one of the oldest sects of Buddhism. In *Indische Alterthums-* *kunde* Lassen observed that the Jainas had but branched off from the Buddhists.⁶

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⁶ Weber's *Sacred Literature of the Jains* transl. by H. W. Smith for the *Indian Antiquary* (Bombay) October 1888, p. 290; H. Jacobi: *Gaina Sutras* in the Sacred Books of the East Series, Part I. *The Akaranga Sutra and The Kalpa Sutra* (Oxford 1884), pp. xviii, xix.

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The similarity between the Jaina and the Brāhmaṇic disciplines was most profound. And Jaina tradition was not less lengthy than the Buddhist.

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The first *chakravartti* or world-ruler of the world according to the Jainas is Bharata⁷ and he was the son of Ṛiṣabha the promulgator or first *Tīrthaṃkara* of Jainism. There were 23 *Tīrthaṃkaras* previous to Mahāvīra, whose immediate predecessor was Pārśva, the twenty-third after Ṛiṣabha.

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⁷ J. Charpentier: "The History of the Jains" in the *Cambridge History of India* Vol. I. (1922), pp. 153, 165, 169 Jacobi: *The Jaina Sutras* in the *Sacred Books of the East Series*, Vol. XXI, p. xxii.

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Pārśva is said to have flourished 250 years before Mahāvīra, the "reformer" of Jainism and the last *Tīrthaṃkara*.⁸

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⁸ For the lives of Mahāvīra, Pārśva and Ṛiṣabha as given in the *Kalpasūtra* see Jacobi's transl. in the Sacred Books of the East Series Vol. XXII. *Gaina Sūtras* Part I. (Oxford 1884).

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Sambhūtavijaya, one of the priests of the Jaina organization, is said to have died in the year of Chandragupta Maurya's accession to the throne. And his contemporary was the priest Bhadravāhu, the author of the first biography of Mahāvīra. Sambhūtavijaya and Bhadravāhu were thus living in the age which saw the compilation of certain parts of the Śākyan *Piṭaka*.

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It was about the same time that the Śvetāmbaras and Digambaras of the Jaina system may have been separated (300 B.C.).

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From the standpoint of Mahāvīra also the extent of the “pluralistic universe” around him was quite vast.

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In the first place, Mahāvīra (c. B.C. 540-468) had two powerful rivals, Sākya the Buddha (c. B.C. 560-480), and the not so well known Gosāla (c. B.C. 484).⁹

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⁹ See the discussion of dates in the *Cambridge History of India*, Vol. I. (1922), pp. 156, 163, Jacobi: *Kalpasūtra* in *Gaina Sūtras* Part I, pp. 8-10 (S.B.E.).

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Secondly, eight classes of “pure metaphysicians” (*akriyāvādins* or non-actionists) are mentioned in the *Sthānaṁga*(IV, 4) of Mahāvīra, as follows¹⁰ :

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¹⁰ Schrader: *Über den Stand der indischen Philosophie zur zeit Mahāvīras und Buddhas* (Strassburg 1902, pp. 545-7) in Barua: *History of Pre-Buddhist Indian Philosophy* (Calcutta 1921), p. 197.

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1. *Ekkavādins* (monists, theists, monotheists)
2. *Anikkavādins* (pluralists)
3. *Mitavādins* (extensionists)
4. *Nimittavādins* (cosmogonists)
5. *Sayavādins* (sensualists)
6. *Samuchchhedavādins* (annihilationists)
7. *Niyavādīns* (eternalists)
8. *Na-santiparalokavādins* (materialists)

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These were all opposed to Mahāvīra’s *kriyāvāda* or doctrine of action.

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The diverse doctrines of the times constitute, among other things, the topics of the Jaina *Sūtra Kritāṁga* Book I. i. II, i.¹¹

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¹¹ For English transl. by Jacobi see the Sacred Books of the East Vol. XLV, *Gaina Sūtras* Part II. (Oxford 1895), pp. 235-248, 339-347.

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The oldest parts of the Jaina texts were composed somewhere between the Pali texts (e.g. the *Dhamma-pada*) and the Sanskrit Buddhist text *Lalitavistara*.¹²

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¹² Jacobi: *Gaina Sutras* (S.B.E.) Part I. pp. x, lii, xliii.

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The origin of the Jaina literature may be placed somewhere about 300 B.C.

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Some of the more important *Sūtras* are mentioned below:¹³
1. *Ākārāṁga Sūtra*,
2. *Kalpa Sūtra*,
3. *Uttarādhyayana*,
4. *Sūtra Kritāṁga*.

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¹³ Jacobi: *Gaina Sūtras* (S.B.E.) Part I. (1884) p. xxxviii, Part II. (1895) p. xl.

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All these were written down in book form under the editorship of Devardhi about 454 A.C.

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The systems which are described as heretical in both Śākyan and Jaina texts had considerable influence in shaping the thoughts and activities of Śākya and Mahāvīra.¹⁴

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¹⁴ Jacobi: *Gaina Sūtras* Part II. in the S.B.E. Vol. XLV. (Oxford 1895), p. xxvii.

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While Sanjaya, Gosāla,¹⁵ Mahāvīra and Śākya were representing Indian culture from four conflicting and somewhat anti-traditional, say, anti-Vedic or anti-Brāhmaṇa standpoints the Vedic or Brāhmaṇic tradition was being maintained as much by the professors of the *Upaniṣads* as by the upholders of the *trivarga* (three desirables).

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¹⁵ For the position of Gośāla in the intellectual *milieu* of Śākya and Mahāvīra see the *Sūtra-Kritāṅga* Book I. Lecture 1, ch. 3, and Book II, Lecture 6 in the S.B.E. Vol. XLV. (1895). See also Jacobi's introduction pp. xxix-xxxii.

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As a category, the doctrine of *trivarga*¹⁶ or three desirables, i.e. the complex of *dharma* (duty), *artha* (interest and utility) and *kāma* (enjoyment of pleasure)

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¹⁶ Winternitz, *Geschichte III* (1921), p. 505; Keith: *History of Sanskrit Literature* (1928) p. 450.

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is at least as old as the *Grihyasūtra* (II, 19, 6) of Hiraṇyakeśin, and Patanjali's *Mahābhāṣya* (Pāṇini 2, 2, 34 *Vārttika* 9, c. B.C. 200). It is to be found of course in the *Mahābhārata* (I. 2. 38) which describes itself as an *Arthaśāstra*, *Dharmaśāstra* and a *Kāmaśāstra* in one.

The Dharma Sūtras

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At the outset it is proper to introduce a formal distinction¹⁷ between the *Dharma Sūtras* and the *Dharma Śāstras* (also called *Smritis*). The *Sūtras* are in prose (or in mixed prose and verse), the latter in verse. The topics are not arranged in an orderly manner in the *Sūtras* while the *Śāstras* (*Smritis*) are particular in observing the threefold grouping of topics, namely, *āchāra*, (customs), *vyavahāra* (law) and *prāyaśchitta* (penance). The *Sūtras* are older than the *Śāstras*.

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¹⁷ P. V. Kane : *History of Dharmaśāstras* Vol. I. (Poona 1930) pp. 12, 131.

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The authors of *Dharmasūtra* or *Dharmaśāstra* may be named below :¹⁸ ,

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¹⁸ *Ibid.*, pp. 19, 30, 45, 46, 59, 71, 148. M. Winternitz : *Geschichte* (Leipzic 1921) Vol. III. pp. 480, 482. Jolly : *Recht und Sitte* (Strassburg 1897) available in Engl. transl. (by B. Ghosh) as *Hindu Law and Custom* (Calcutta 1928).

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Gautama (c 550 B.C.)
Hārīta (c 500 B.C.)
Baudhāyana (c 450 B.C.)
Āpastamba (c 400 B.C.)
Hiraṇyakeśi, whose work is almost identical with Apastamba's.
Vaśiṣṭha (c 150 B.C.)
Manu (*Smriti*) (c 150 A.C.)

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The chronology is of course open to question.

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All the treatises mentioned above belong to the *Dharmasūtra* class with the exception of the *Manu Samhitā* which is a *Dharmaśāstra* or a *Smriti*. It may be observed that Max Müller and Bühler (*Sacred Books of the East*, Vol. XXV) have suspected the existence of a *Sūtra* by Manu which may have been later developed into the metrical *Śāstra*.

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The writers of other *Dharma Sūtras*¹⁹ may be enumerated here without reference to the chronological order: Atri, Uśanas, Kanva and Kānva, Kāśyapa and Kaśyapa, Gārgya, Chyavana, Jātu-Karaṇya, Devala, Paithīnasi, Budha, Brihaspati, Bharadvāja and Bhāradvāja, Śatātapa, Sumantu.

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¹⁹ P. V. Kane: *History of Dharmaśāstras* Vol. I. (Poona 1930) pp. 107-131.

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Manu, Atri, Viṣṇu, Hārīta, Yājnavalkya, Uśanas, Āngiras, Yama, Āpastamba, Samvarta, Kātyāyana, Brihaspati, Parāśara, Vyāsa, Śaṁkha, Likhita, Dakṣa, Gautama, Śatātapa and Vaśiṣṭha are the promulgators of *Dharma Śāstras* according to *Yājnavalkya Smriti* (I, ch. i, Introduction 4-5).²⁰

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