The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s7: Law and Constitution in the Vinaya
The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s7
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Law and Constitution in the Vinaya
c10.s7.1
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.
c10.s7.2
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).
Linked texts (1)
- Vinayapiṭaka — Pāli