The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s9.t5.1

c14.s9.t5.1

A seventeenth century *nibandha* (digest)-writer on *nītiśāstra* is Nīlakaṇṭha the jurist (*c.* 1610-1645). His patron was Bhagvantadeva, a Bundellā ruler with capital at Bhareha near the confluence of the Jumna and the Chambal.¹ It is to be observed that even now Nīlakaṇṭha is held very high as jurist in Bombay, especially in the Maratha country. As his dates make him a contemporary of Jahangir, Shahjahan and Śivāji his work on *rājanīti* possesses a special value as throwing light on the intellectual ferment of that great epoch of new political movements.