The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c13.s3.t2.5

c13.s3.t2.5

The arrow does not shoot out of the bow of itself from the hands of the man who depends on *daiva* (chance or luck), says Somadeva (ch. XXIX). It is to the person who depends on *pauruṣa* that there is the problem of gain or loss (*pauruṣāvalambinorthānarthayoh sandehah*). But to the fellow dependent on *daiva* loss is certain. The relations between *daiva* (luck, chance, fate) and *pauruṣa* (human energy, exertion, manhood) are those between life and medicine. It is with such philosophy of faith in the efficacy of *pauruṣa* as capable of deciding the issue between success and failure or life and death, that Somadeva analyzes the relations between man and man, prince and prince, state and state. In his treatise, then, we are to encounter action, active life, the ability to transform the external conditions, activism.