The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s14.9

c10.s14.9

The methodology of Meyer is, on the whole, the same as that by which the relative and absolute chronology of the "law books" has been settled by Bühler and Jolly in the *Sacred Books of the East Series* as well as by the latter in *Recht und Sitte*. That there is nothing unacceptable in this methodology is perfectly clear. But that its application is unsatisfying is apparent to many students of indology who are asked by Bühler and Jolly at every step to accept this hypothesis or that in regard to what is alleged to be plausible and what is not. Meyer's bombshell is therefore to be welcome as an item calculated to re-open the question which was for all practical purposes supposed to be closed on account of sheer inertia or perhaps because indologists wanted to have some sort of a working hypothesis in regard to the chronological scaffolding.