The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s17.10

c10.s17.10

For the period of three hundred years (c. B.C. 600-300) from Bimbisāra to Chandragupta Maurya Indian literature possesses hardly any dated texts in Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit, if it has them at all for any period. One does not know for certain the dates of the texts in the form in which they are available today. It is interesting to observe that almost every one of these texts is known in so many words to be a "compilation" and has made it a point to mention the "old masters," the *pūrvāchāryas*, previous authors or compilers. Whatever, then, be the dates of the last redaction, compilation or abridgment one can presume quite a high antiquity for the substantial portion of the material contained therein. That the milieu of Śākya and the Śākyans as well as of Mahāvīra and the Jainas was pluralistic in cultural institutions and movements acquires, therefore, special significance in the complicated questions of literary chronology. We understand that many of the “old masters” of the professors of *dharma*, *artha* and *kāma śāstras* were the contemporaries, colleagues, critics and rivals of Śākya and Mahāvīra. The synchronism and parallel growth of the *trivarga* literary complex with the earliest Śākyan-Jaina propaganda and Upaniṣadic (Vedic) atmosphere may be presumed as a matter of course. In so far as the Śākya-Mahāvīra activities are known to belong to the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. the critical student of comparative literary history will not be off the mark, should he attempt to place some of the earlier strands, chapters, and verses of the available texts on *Dharmaśāstra*, *Arthaśāstra* and *Kāmaśāstra* in the sixth century B.C. i.e., the very age when Śākya and Mahāvīra were living. In every instance when it is necessary to indicate a somewhat later date for any such undated texts whether in Sanskrit, Pali or Prakrit it will be necessary to adduce incontestable and positive evidences. Each and every text will have to be appraised for chronological purposes on its own merits. Altogether, Indian literary tradition enables us to feel that the Hindu mind was not dominated by any particular “ism”. The prevalence of conflicting tendencies served to endow social life and thought with a diversified pluralism as well as freedom of movement.