The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s9.t7.57

c14.s9.t7.57

Such a jump is, however, not unparalleled in the world's political speculations. We may recall the French chauvinist of the early fourteenth century, Pierre Du Bois,¹⁴ who in his *De Recuperatione Terre Sancte* (1307) was inspiring his prince Philippe le Bel with extraordinary ambitions for France, little as it was. Rāmdās's dream of an Indian empire,—a *chāturanta* or *sārvabhauma* state,—under the Marathas, naturally in substitution of the Moghul, Tāmra, Mlechchha or Yavana Empire, may be compared to Pierre Du Bois's conception of the French Empire in Europe in replacement of the Holy Roman Empire. It is worth while to note that this French treatise deals with the "recovery of the Holy Land" and naturally, the crusade against the enemies of Christendom. It is just such a crusade in order to recover one's *dharma* that Rāmdās stands for.