The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s8.t4.9

c14.s8.t4.9

The *Śukranīti* can very often be cited in illustration of the institutions and principles of the polity established by Śivāji and developed by the Peshwas.¹² The state-council of eight (*aṣṭa pradhāna*), town-planning, land revenue, forced labour, agricultural policy, military ideas, punishments, legal procedure, etc., can be explained in terms of this *nīti-śāstra*. Indeed, in the first edition of the present work (Vol. I, 1914, p. 259) it was pointed out that Śivāji's war-cry about the inviolability of the cow might suggest a date for that line of the *Śukranīti* (IV, vii, 453) which declares the killing of cows to be one of the most serious *casus belli*. And the ideas of Manu, nay, of Kauṭalya can likewise be detected in the system of Śivāji and his successors.