The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s9.t6.63

c14.s9.t6.63

Mitra-Miśra is a Northerner from the "Middle-West" and is a most distinguished representative of the so-called Benares school. But his writings were not confined to any particular Indian region. The *Rājanītiprakāśa*, like the other parts of the *Vīramitrodaya*, was read throughout India. A generation of *paṇḍits* or scholars was nurtured on the great Mitra-Miśra's teachings on the "politics of boundaries" and the theory of international relations (*dvādaśarājamaṇḍalam*). This may be easily taken to have constituted the Brāhmaṇic milieu that furnished the spiritual background of the still greater Śivāji's exploits in the Maratha country. Mitra-Miśra wrote for a great age and for the most momentous issues and he was quite up to the needs and requirements of the generation that looked up to him for guidance. With him the *Rājanītiprakāśa* is not an archaeological study or a dissertation of antiquarian research but an instrument of futurism, an agency in the re-making of the present. Nīlakaṇṭha, as we have seen, did not omit any important chapters; but his past-ridden spirit acts as a damper on the reader and one feels that he is not in touch with the times. Mitra-Miśra is made of another stuff. He has, besides, produced a voluminous work. The fullness of details and the diversity of viewpoints presented by him possess a charm of their own such as is entirely lacking in the almost niggardly manner in which Nīlakaṇṭha has gone to business with political science.