The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c11.s1.t5.8

c11.s1.t5.8

It is strange that Jolly, the author of *Recht und Sitte*, should have considered the *Arthaśāstra* to be a branch of the *Dharmaśāstra*. In Hindu mores there is no room for any one category (*kāma*, *artha* or *dharma*) claiming priority to or precedence over another. This indeed is the first postulate about personality and societal organization in Hindu thought. The secular, worldly, economic, political and social interests (*artha* and *kāma*) of mankind can be traced back to the *Atharva Veda* atmosphere in the Vedic complex. The discussions about them, the solicitude for them, the magical and perhaps Tāntric hocus-pocus in their regard are really as old as anything in Indian culture and intellectual discipline. Some of the oldest folk-elements, the secular interests of diverse economic groups, and non-Aryan or pre-Aryan, nay, depressed and un-Brāhmaṇ classes or races are to be found in the milieu of the *Vrātya*.² As long as the *Atharva* tradition is there one does not have to look for the origins of *Arthaśāstra* in some *Vidyā* bearing on non-*Artha*.