The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s8.t1.1

c14.s8.t1.1

The Maratha positivism such as in politics took shape in the *dharma-rājya* of Śivāji the Great is not an isolated phenomenon in the Hindu culture of Southern India or of the Deccan. Among the formative forces of Śivāji's *Hindwi Swarājya* are to be detected from his mother's side the memories of the war of self-defence against the Moslems conducted by the Yādavas of Devagiri (c. 1200-1318). And on account, again, of his father's experiences in Vijayanagara, the Empire (1346-1646) which successfully upheld Hindu liberty for several centuries although with vicissitudes of fortune, the ideas of Hindu statehood were imbibed by Śivāji as a matter of course.¹ Śivāji can then be regarded as but a continuator under Moghul conditions of the traditional Hindu spirit, the *dharma*, which is obstinate enough not to submit to foreign forces. In Śivāji's ambitions, exploits and achievements are, further, to be seen the embodiments of the same *parākrama* (prowess) and *digvijigīṣā* (conquest of the quarters) which enabled Chandragupta Maurya to emancipate the north-western frontiers of India from the Hellenistic Seleukos (c. 305 B.C.). In subsequent times the same assertion of the Hindu spirit against foreign domination found expression in Skandagupta's expulsion of the Huns (c. 455 A.C.) furnishing thereby another precedent to Śivāji's triumphant service to Hindu culture. Historically, however, it is the South-Indian exploits of the Yādavas and of the Vijayanagara Rāyas that in point of time as well as region served to inspire Śivāji with direct examples.