The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c12.s9.1

c12.s9.1

*Vārttāśāstra* is a new category. *Vārttā* is known to the *Kauṭalyan Arthaśāstra* (Book I) as agriculture, animal husbandry and commerce. The same three professions constitute *Vārttā* in Somadeva's *Nītivākyāmrita* (VI, 1) also (c 950 A.C.). In such a late compilation as the *Śukranīti* (I. lines 305-312) it comprises a fourth item, namely, interest or banking. Of course the subject matter comprehended in *Vārttā* is as old as the Vedic culture-complex. But specialized treatises on *Vārttā* or any of its diverse topics can hardly be traced back even to such recent times as the great age of literary reconstructions, compilations, codifications and redactions, namely, the Gupta Epoch (c A.C. 320-550). The beginnings of *Vārttā* lore as idependent discipline in the thousand and one crafts and industries, occupations and professions, in one word, in the topics of applied economics may however be sought during the period covered by the Vardhanas, Chālukyas, Pālas, Senas, Gurjara-Pratīhāras, Rāṣṭrakūṭas, and Cholas (600-1300). Many of the handbooks on *Vārttā* mentioned among the Sanskrit manuscripts in Aufrecht's *Catalogus Catalogorum* as well as some of the printed texts on this branch of socio-economic science were made use of for the present work in the edition of 1911-14. The English translation of *Śukranīti* served to invite the attention of indologists and sociologists to the different branches of Hindu applied economics from town planning to veterinary science.