The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c11.s5.36

c11.s5.36

Had Breloer only cared to make a passing remark just by way of "suggestive" reference in order to point out what he considers to be an "approximate parallel" the situation would not have been so damaging. But he has seriously set himself to establish a thesis on what may be called the Kauṭalyan anticipation of planned economy. The effort is regrettable in view of the fact that his intensive analysis of the financial data as available in the *Arthaśāstra* is marked generally by sound judgment and critical scholarship. He uses a commonplace category, "economic planning", without distinguishing its old and new contents and has led the readers to suspect that the latest contents of this category are to be discovered in the ancient Hindu statesman of the Hellenistic period. This attempt should not appear to be more reasonable than that of discovering a modern British Cabinet in the royal councils of the *Rāmāyaṇa* or a modern League of Nations in some of the inter-tribal assemblies of the *Mahābhārata*.