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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c12.s13: From Epicurus to Gregory the Great

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c12.s13

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From Epicurus to Gregory the Great

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In the Hellenistic world during this period the dominant thought forces came from Epicurus (B.C. 341-270) whose doctrine of the "wise man" (corresponding to the Hindu *Ṛiṣi*, Jaina *Arhat* and the *Śākyan Bhikkhu*) taught mankind the blessing of quietism and indifference to public life.³⁴ Equality of man in a world-state was preached by Zeno (B.C. 350-260), whose doctrine of "universal reason" might be easily assimilated to the *jñāna-yoga* of the Indian systems. By promulgating the cult of "indifference to emotions" this Stoic philosopher was propagating virtually the Jaina cult of Mahāvīra.

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³⁴ E. Zeller : *The Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics* (London 1892).

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Among the Romans this *Risi*-cult as the doctrine of universal reason and law was taken over by Cicero³⁵ (B.C. 106-43). The *pax sārvabhaumicā* (peace of the *sārvabhauma* state or world-empire) of Hindu idealists found shape, so to say, in the Ciceronian doctrine of universal monarchy.³⁶ The most philosophical—Stoic—of all the Roman intellectuals was Seneca³⁷ (B.C. 4-65 A.C.), the contemporary of Jesus and Aśvaghoṣa (?). Seneca's *De Clementia* (55 A.C.) taught the king in the right *nīti* style of Manu that he should remember that he out of all mankind has been chosen to act in the place of the gods and that the life and death, the fate and lot of all men were in his hands.³⁸

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³⁵ A. Trollope: *The Life of Cicero* (London 1880).

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³⁶ F. Atger: *Histoire des doctrines du contrat social* (Nimes 1906) p. 26.

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³⁷ R. M. Gummere: *Seneca the Philosopher and His Modern Message* (London 1922).

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³⁸ A. J. Carlyle: *Mediæval Political Theory in the West* Vol. I. (1903) pp. 30-31.

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Seneca's "wise man" was like the Mahāyāna *Bodhisattva* a servant of society.³⁹ The Stoic *Riṣi*, as portrayed by Seneca, could not afford to be a morally self-sufficient entity like the Epicurean "wise man" who corresponded somewhat to the *Nirvānist*, so to say, of Śākyan or Hīnayāna Buddhism.

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³⁹ Carlyle, Vol. I, pp. 26-27.

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In India the deification of Śākya the moralist as Buddha the god as well as the initiation of *avatāras* like Rāma and Kriṣṇa were almost synchronous with the transformation of Jesus the Jew into Jesus the Christ.⁴⁰ Here Aśvaghoṣa and Vālmīki, there Seneca and St. Paul were consummating the profoundest remaking of mankind. While the Hīnayāna *Vinaya Piṭaka* would remind one of the contemporary Roman jurists and constitutionmakers, the Mahāyāna *Buddha-Charita*, *Saddharma-puṇḍarīka* and other treatises of selfless social services, love of humanity and so forth would appear to have their natural cognates in the Mark, Matthew, Luke, Paul and Peter chapters of the *New Testament*. Readers of the *Gītā* and the *Kurāl*, the *Rāmāyaṇa* and the *Viṣṇu Purāna* could have easily joined the Romans in listening to such messages as the following from St. Paul (Gal. III, 28, 1 Cor. XII, 13). "There can be neither Jew nor Greek," said he, "there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female, for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus."

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⁴⁰ See the chapter on the "Birth of "Buddhism" (B.C. 150—A.C. 100) in B. K. Sarkar: *Chinese Religion Through Hindu Eyes* (Shanghai 1916): Introduction of Buddha-cult into China; Chinese Romanticism; The Religion of Love, Exit Sakya, Enter Buddha and His Host; The Psychology of Romantic Religion; Spiritual Experiences of Iran and Israel; Buddha-cult and its Indian Cognates; The "Balance of Accounts" in International Philosophy; Rival Claims of the East and the West; Parallelism and Open Questions; pp. 138-161; cf. Charles: *Between the Old and the New Testaments* (Home University Library, London); Hogarth: *Ancient East* (*H.U.L.* London).

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Jaina, Buddhist, Hindu or Chinese idealism was not the only force in the East or the West in the first centuries of the Christian era. In Europe Gaius (c 150 A.C.) and Ulpian (c 200 A.C.) were laying the foundations of Roman jurisprudence. In India Manu (c 150 A.C.) and Yājnavalkya (c 350 A.C.) were consolidating the legal institutions. But in Europe there arose the problem of temporal *vs.* spiritual power, a problem which was not paralleled in India. St. Augustine (354-430 A.C.) taught in his *City of God* that even the Neros received their power through God, i.e., that even tyranny was divine.⁴¹ In the fifth century Pope Gelasius wrote that the "Emperor was the son, not the ruler of the Church." In other words, the Church was declared to be independent of the state in this system of dyarchy. Finally, while the *Digest* (old laws) was compiled, the *Institutes* promulgated and the *Code* (constitutions) brought together under Justinian (526-565), Pope Gregory I. the Great, early in the seventh century (590-606) brought to a head the doctrine of "divine right" for the king in a categorical manner. In his thinking, resistance was inadmissible under any circumstances. To the Hindus, Buddhists and Jainas of the time, used as they were to Kāmandaka, Nārada, Brihaspati, the *Mahābhārata*, the *Siddhānta*, and the *Śikṣāsamuchchaya* the language of these Patristic messages would have been unintelligible.

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⁴¹ Carlyle, I, pp. 151, 187.

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The category, "from Kauṭalya to Varāhamihira," is only a convenient expression. We have taken the period of nine hundred or nearly one thousand years from Alexander and Aristotle to Justinian and Gregory the Great, which corresponds to the Indian age from Pāṇini to Brihaspati. The most varied phases of culture, nay, the most varied culture-worlds are to be seen in growth and development during this millennium. For the purposes of intensive study, naturally, we should have to divide this period up into several stages.

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