The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s9.t6.61

c14.s9.t6.61

In the *Rājanītiprakāśa* Mitra-Miśra has shown as keen interest and as laborious research as Kauṭalya and Śukra. He has not tried to skip over the problems in a hurried manner. In details he is plentiful. Whenever necessary he is prepared to enter into controversies, i.e., quote original texts from the most heterogeneous sources. Although by profession a "mere scholar" or Paṇḍit he is a practical man and writes with an eye to the utility of his *ruchira* (attractive) science. He knows that his work is to be used by rulers, ministers, generals and statesmen. In regard to the question of war and peace he is a *pucca* Brāhmaṇa and continues the tradition of the greatest of the Brāhmaṇas since the Vedic ages, so far as he considers international problems to be the most profound concerns of daily life. He has not, therefore, indulged in platitudes. Foreign policy, diplomacy, international relations,—these are the topics in which every Brāhmaṇa philosopher of politics from the earliest times has exhibited his *forte* as statesman, and aye, as *paṇḍit* or scholar. And Mitra-Miśra is a redoubtable "chip of the old block." Fifty per cent of the huge volume (pp. 248-493) he has consecrated to the profoundest reality of *saptāmga* and organized existence, namely, to foreign relations, and every word in these chapters has a message for all,—the ruler and the subjects,—as to the "duty that lies nearest thee."