The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c13.s3.t2.17

c13.s3.t2.17

A very noteworthy feature of *Nitivākyāmrita* remains to be mentioned in this estimate, short as it is. Just after offering salutation to Gaṇeśa Somadeva offers another salutation. This, however, is not to a god or the *guru* but to the *rājya*, the state. The *rājya* is there conceived by him as *dharmārthaphala*, i.e., as an organism of which the fruits are *dharma* and *artha*. The conception of the king as the maker of time is well-known in *Śukranīti* (I. lines 43-44). It is specially to be observed that Somadeva does not use the category *rājā* or the ruler but *rājya*, the entire socio-political complex. In so far as the *rājya* has been adored by the author of the *Nītivākyāmrita* as the source of *dharma* and *artha* he must be credited with having made a contribution of extraordinary value in the history of human thought. It is here that we encounter the doctrine of *étatisme* in a nutshell. It is perhaps the greatest single contribution of the tenth century to Indian social philosophy.