The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c13.s3.t4: 4. Lakṣmīdhara and 5. Gopāla
The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c13.s3.t4
- Language
- English
4. Lakṣmīdhara and 5. Gopāla
c13.s3.t4.1
The eleventh and twelfth centuries were important in political speculation as in legal discussions. Certain authors were exponents of law and politics at the same time. The Jaina scholar Hemachandra's *Laghu Arhannīti* is, like *Śukranīti*, a comprehensive treatise although within a small compass. Then we have Lakṣmīdhara²¹ (c 1100-1160) who wrote a substantial section on *Rājanīti-Kalpataru* in his great work, *Smriti-Kalpataru*. He was the foreign minister of King Govindachandra of Kanauj (1105-43) and was a powerful statesman.
c13.s3.t4.2
²¹ Kane, Vol. I. pp. 77, 289, 317,
c13.s3.t4.3
Gopāla (c 1100), the jurist of the *Kāmadhenu* fame, was the author also of a *Rājanīti-Kāmadhenu*. This was utilized by Chaṇḍeśvara of Mithilā (c 1325) in his *Rājanīti-Ratnākara*,²² who quotes likewise Lakṣmīdhara and Śrīkara along with Gopāla as exponents of *rājadhane dīnānāthādisakalaprāṇinām amśītvam* (i.e., cosharership of the poor, orphans and all other "creatures" in the wealth of the king or revenues of the state).
c13.s3.t4.4
²² *The Rājanītiratnākara by Chandeśvara* ed. by K. P. Jayaswal (Patna 1924), pp. q., 81.
Linked texts (3)
- Rājanītikāmadhenu — Sanskrit
- Laghu-Arhannīti — Hemacandra, Sanskrit
- Rājanītiratnākara — Caṇḍeśvara Ṭhakkura, Sanskrit