The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s9.t6.64

c14.s9.t6.64

The special importance attached by Mitra-Miśra to the *Purāṇas* has rendered him quite acceptable as an author even for the Hindus of the twentieth century. It is even possible to build up a twentieth century school of Indian political theory on the foundations of Mitra-Miśra. For the Hindus of today the *Purāṇas* represent the spirit of newspapers and journals, so to say, i.e., the most familiar, practical and life-serving literature conceivable. Manu and Yājnavalkya are authorities still by all means. But they are somewhat "archaic" and uncouth. They are respected, nay, perhaps, adored but from a distance. But in regard to the *Purāṇas* the attitudes and feelings of the Hindus are far otherwise. They are direct, personal, friendly. The *Purāṇas* are the manuals for the man in the bazaar. In so far as the *Rājanītiprakāśa* is nurtured mainly on the *Purāṇas*, the folk literature, as it were, of Hindu India we breathe in it a comradely atmosphere and through it come into contact with a democratic paraphernalia, the mass-mind. Mitra-Miśra as the author of this *liaison* between the folk and political *śāstra* can therefore still be the starting point of new superstructures constructed in accordance with the novel requirements of intercourse between the East and the West.