The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s9.t7.59

c14.s9.t7.59

Another more celebrated dream may be remembered in this connection. That is the dream of Dante about the universal empire as developed in his *De Monarchia* and as often referred to in the *Divine Comedy*. That Italian conception of the fourteenth century furnished, *en passant*, as it is, with the idea of a *Veltro*, the Messiah or the Deliverer, corresponds to the eternal Hindu doctrine of *Pax Sārvabhaumica* (peace of the *sārvabhauma* or world-state). It is in the Dantesque world-empire that students of Maratha political theories, pious wishes and ideals can see a natural analogy of Rāmdās's *mahārāṣṭradharma bārhwāwā*. Ultimately, it is interesting that we find ourselves in the conception of *mahārāṣṭra* as equivalent to a "large" or "great" state, i.e. an empire, e.g., the *sārvabhauma* or *chāturanta* monarchy of traditional Hindu political philosophy.¹⁵