The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s14.2

c10.s14.2

But no student of legal institutions bearing on ancient or modern regions or of primitive and well-developed races can oppose the idea that a code in so far as it is a compilation, say, the *Digest* of Justinian, the *Sachsenspiegel* of medieval Germany, or the *Code Napoleon*, is bound to be a hotchpotch of materials coming from the most diverse sources. In the evolution of "Hindu" mores, customs and usages the most ancient Vedic or even pre-Vedic culture-complex can hardly be understood except as the result of fusion between Aryan and non-Aryan, Brāhmaṇic and non-Brāhmaṇic, nay, very often Indian and non-Indian elements. Even the oldest "Hindu" laws relating to the arts and crafts, the farming, cattle-breeding and commercial profession and so forth are the expressions of life lived by the *viṣ*, the folk, the *Dāsas*, the *Dasyus*, the *Vr\=atyas*, the *Niṣādas*, the "wild tribes"²² and what not of the times. Sociologically speaking, this is an important thesis such as may be accepted by every student of positivism.