The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c12.s8.3

c12.s8.3

"Treatises" on applied economics known as *Vārttāśāstras* can perhaps be not yet traced back to the Gupta period. But the literature on farming, cattle breeding, commerce and banking is to be found in the *Purāṇas*, the Epics, as well as in the *Brihat Samhitā*. The same remarks apply to the *Śilpaśāstras* (treatises on arts and crafts). No record of Gupta positivism can be complete without due orientations to the secular and "exact" sciences¹⁹ as many of the *Vārttā* and *Śilpa* books are. The subject deserves more than an incidental notice.