The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s9.t1.4

c14.s9.t1.4

Chaṇḍeśvara was like Gopāla and Lakṣmīdhara at once a student of law and politics. In a sense every student of *dharmaśāstra* was a student of *rājadharma*, and on the other hand, every student of *rājadharma*, *nītiśāstra*, *daṇḍanīti*, or *arthaśāstra* was also a student of *dharmaśāstra* from the earliest times. But it appears that men like Gopāla and Lakṣmīdhara had produced the *rājadharma* sections of their *Smriti* works, *Kāmadhenu* and *Kalpataru*, separately. The *Rājanīti-Kāmadhenu* and the *Rājanīti-Kalpataru* were in this sense to be differentiated from the *rājadharma* sections in Manu, Yājnavalkya etc. This is perhaps why Chaṇḍeśvara quotes the *Rājanīti-Kāmadhenu* and the *Rājanīti-Kalpataru* as independent texts. It should appear that his own *Rājanīti-ratnākara* may have been inspired in form by the appearance of the political works of Gopāla and Lakṣmīdhara. His *Smriti*-work had been completed in seven *ratnākaras* before he composed the *ratnākara* on *Rājanīti*.