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

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.