Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c13.s2.t8: 7. Hemādri

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c13.s2.t8

Language
English

7. Hemādri

c13.s2.t8.1

The other great jurist of the age is Hemādri (c 1300), author of *Chaturvarga-chintāmaṇi*. This is an encyclopædic treatise of socio-legal topics. Portions published up till now (*Bibliotheca Indica Series*) already cover 6000 pages. Much remains yet to be printed.¹³ The author was a Southerner, being a minister of King Mahādeva (1260-1271) and Rāmachandra (1271-1309). He describes himself also as being the keeper of this king's archives or state records. The *Chintāmaṇi* was the standard work of the Maraṭha and Telugu territories.

c13.s2.t8.2

¹³ *Chaturvarga-Chintāmaṇi* text (edited by Bharata Chandra Siromani) in the Bibliotheca Indica Series Vol. I. *Danakhanda* (Calcutta 1873) pp. 891-893, 951-953, 1001-1003, 1029-1048.

c13.s2.t8.3

For the purposes of sociological thought in the field of positivism no work is more valuable than Hemādri's. The division of his great treatise which is given over to *Dāna*, charities or gifts furnishes an objective picture of the morals, manners and sentiments in regard to "social service," community work, public benefactions etc. And as this division is based on the *Purāṇas* and other treatises including the *Mahābhārata* such as preceded and were formative forces in the epoch of Hemādri its importance as a document of Hindu social institutions for the entire period from Harṣa downwards is considerable.

c13.s2.t8.4

*Ārogyadāna* (gift of health) is one of the *anantaphaladānas* (gifts fraught with eternal or infinite effects) described in chapter XIII of the *Dānakhaṇḍa*. The establishment of *ārogyaśālā* (cure-houses or hospitals) is to be found among the suggestions cited from *Nandī Purāṇa* and *Skanda-Purāṇa*.

c13.s2.t8.5

The construction of bridges on roads and rivers is one of the measures quoted by Hemādri from the *Viṣṇudharmottara Purāṇa* as calculated to offer relief to the travellers (*pānthaśuśruṣā*). For gifts in the form of wells Hemādri's authorities are the *Viṣṇudharmottara*, *Nandī-Purāṇa*, *Āditya-Purāṇa*, *Viṣṇu-Purāṇa*, and *Devī-Purāṇa*.

c13.s2.t8.6

For the planting of trees for public convenience Hemādri quotes the *Skaṇḍa*, *Nandī*, *Vāyu*, *Devī*, *Matsya*, and other *Purāṇas*, as well as the *Mahābhārata*.

c13.s2.t8.7

Hemādri's master, the Yādava King Rāmdeva of Deogiri, was the contemporary of the Karṇāṭa King of Mithilā, Hari Simhadeva (1304-1324), at whose court the celebrated writer of *Smṛti* and *Nīti*, Chaṇḍeśvara, flourished. Rāmadeva had to fight against and surrender to the Mussalman forces under Malik Kafur sent by Alauddin Khilji in 1309. Hari Simhadeva failed to withstand the attack of the Mussalman army under Ghiyasuddin Tughlak and retired into Nepal in 1324. They were thus two of the last independent Hindu Kings in two different parts of India. Hemādri and Chaṇḍeśvara were thus contemporaries and represent the last strands of Hindu social thought in politics and jurisprudence on the eve of Moslem contacts.¹⁴ A chapter of Hindu culture may then be closed indifferently with either of these two great thinkers. Let us close a period with Hemādri and embark upon a new one with Chaṇḍeśvara.

c13.s2.t8.8

¹⁴ The *Rājanītiratnākara* by Chandesvara (Patna 1924) pp. i, j, l, r.

c13.s2.t8.9

It is worth while to observe that Chaṇḍeśvara’s *Rājanīti-Ratnākara* was not composed while Harisimha was still reigning. It appears to have been written under King Bhaveśa who was perhaps the first ruler set up by the Tughlaks of Delhi as their feudatory. In that event Chaṇḍeśvara’s political treatise is virtually one of the first Hindu works produced under new socio-political (Hindu-Moslem) conditions. It is therefore by all means to be treated as somewhat different from the work of Hemādri.

c13.s2.t8.10

Certain works like those of Viśvarūpa, Vijnāneśvara and Aparārka, are formally known as commentaries. But contentually they ought to be described as *nibandhas*.

c13.s2.t8.11

The style of *nibandhas* may be seen from Hemādri’s work. Hemādri has made it a point to give the meanings even of individual words whenever necessary. Besides, lengthy interpretations or explanations in prose are to be found every now and then. It is not out of place to observe that Hemādri’s name is to be found in the third person.

c13.s2.t8.12

The *Kalpataru*, the *Smriti Chandrikā*, and the *Chaturvarga-chintāmaṇi* are *nibandhas* i.e. digests of different *Smritis* or *Dharmasūtras*. They represent the synthesis attempted at by the compilers and may be placed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.¹⁵ Such digests are more important from the standpoint of law and politics than mere commentaries on individual *Smritis*.

c13.s2.t8.13

¹⁵ Kane, p. 247.

c13.s2.t8.14

The influence of *Smriti* politics on orthodox scholarship in modern Bengal is considerable. The *Smritis* or *Dharmaśāstras* as sources of political (*nīti*) thought have been utilized by a contemporary writer, Madhusūdan Bhattāchārya of Nadia, for his *Ratnamālā*¹⁶ (Garland of Gems) or Collection of Extracts. The following texts are to be found in his references:—1. *Manu*, 2. *Atri*, 4. *Hārīta*, 5. *Yājnavalkya*, 6. *Parāśara* 7. *Gautama*, 8. *Vaśiṣṭha*. The chronological order has not been used in this enumeration.

c13.s2.t8.15

¹⁶ Vol. I. *Hindu Rājanīti* (Calcutta, first edition 1904. Second edition 1909). The treatise, covering as it does 960 pages, consists of Bengali translation as text and Sanskrit original as footnotes.

Linked texts (21)