The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s3.3

c10.s3.3

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