The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c12.s4.6

c12.s4.6

People have detected the ideas of the *Angas* and the *Āgamas*, i.e., Jainism in this Tamil classic (300 A.C.). On the other hand, it exhibits indebtedness to the Kauṭalyan *Arthaśāstra*, coincidences with the *Kāmandakīnīti*, *Manu Samhitā* and the *Mahābhārata* (*Bhīṣma Parva*).¹¹ Be this as it may, this book of verses, complete as it is in 1330 aphoristic stanzas, is divided into three parts according to *trivarga*, i.e., *dharma*, *artha* and *kāma*. We can then establish to a certain extent a psychological affinity between this South Indian moralist and Bhartrihari, the author of three *śatakas* or centuries of verses, namely, *Śringāraśataka* (on love), *Vairāgyaśataka* (on dispassion), and *Nitiśataka* (on morals and propriety). And in any case the student of positivism can find in this eclectic work a clue to some of the solid foundations of Hindu social life in southern India in the early centuries of the Christian era. It is worth while to observe that *porul* which corresponds to *artha* commands greater attention of the author than the other two interests. Indeed, we may take it almost as a *Kāmandakīnīti* in Tamil.