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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c12.s10: The Śilpaśāstras

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c12.s10

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The Śilpaśāstras

c12.s10.1

While introducing the *Vārttāśāstra* we should perhaps at once enter the domain of *Silpaśāstra*, either as one of the branches of the former or perhaps as almost its twin in the Indian intellectual system. As a category *Śilpaśāstra* possesses by all means an independent status. It deals with the arts and crafts, especially those bearing on architecture, sculpture and painting as well as townplanning. But as belonging to applied economics we may name both *Varttāśāstra* (farming, cattle breeding, trade and banking) and *Śilpaśāstra* (housebuilding and the fine arts) in one and the same breath. It is interesting to observe that in the *Nītiśāstras*, e.g., in our *Śukranīti*²¹ the place of *Śilpaśāstra* is no less important than that of *Vārttāśāstra*. Apart from the fact that the Agni, Matsya, *Viṣṇudharmottara*, and other *Purāṇas* deal with the topics of *Śilpaśāstras* as much as they do with the *Vārttāśāstras*, the independent literature on housebuilding as well as temples, images, paintings, etc. is exceedingly large.

c12.s10.2

²¹ The material of the *Śukranīti* has been extensively utilized in B. B. Dutt: *Town planning in Ancient India* (Calcutta 1925) and P. N. Bose: *Principles of Indian Śilpaśāstras* (Lahore 1926). The English translation of *Śukranīti* has been made use of in the most varied forms by students of all sorts of economic, political and social topics during the last quarter of the present century. One is convinced that while the *Kauṭalīya Arthaśāstra* has given rise to researches with special reference to politics, the angles from which the *Śukranīti* have been attacked, thanks to the encyclopædic character of its contents, have been most extensive and diverse. It is possible to assert that in certain fields recent indology has been virtually dominated by Kauṭalya and Śukra. It is worth mentioning and curious at the same time that although *Kāmandakīnīti* was rendered available in English in 1896 it has failed as yet to evoke considerable interest among scholars. See also the chapter on "The Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya and the Nītiśāstra of Śukra" in A. K. Sen: *Studies in Hindu Political Thought* (Calcutta 1926), pp. 135-179.

c12.s10.3

The problem of dating in connection with the *Śilpaśāstras* is identical with that in connection with the *Vārttā-* *śāstras*. As in the case of the latter, the materials of the *Śilpaśāstra*²² can be traced in well developed forms at least to the Gupta age, e.g., to the *Brihat Samhitā* (c. 550 A.C.). Nay, in so far as town-planning, the establishment of villages and towns, the erection of buildings, dams etc., and the construction of roads belong to the *Kautalīya Arthaśāstra*, the *Śilpaśāstras* like the *Vārttāśāstras* can to this extent be seen even in that *milieu*.

c12.s10.4

²² K. Rangachari: "Town-Planning and House-Building in Ancient India, according to Silpasastras" in the *I.H.Q.*, December 1927, March 1928.

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