The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s9.t8.9

c14.s9.t8.9

The category "*dharma*" occurs very often in this *Ādnāpatra*. (pp. 15, 16, 26, 37). While discussing some of the general principles of politics Rāmachandrapant is virtually paraphrasing all that the *smriti* and the *nīti śāstras* have to say about *dharma* in relation to the social order (pp. 15-16). The value of the paraphrase consists in the fact that the author is not dealing like, say, Kauṭalya, Manu, Śukra etc. with abstract entities called the state. The author is every moment conscious that he is writing of a particular state. And that is his "this kingdom" (pp. 3, 5, 7, 8, 15), "Hindu kingdom" (p. 13), *svarājya* (p. 3) etc. In this Marathi Edict we are in season and out of season made conscious of the great reality that the *Hindwī Svarājya* of Śivāji the Great, perhaps the greatest Hindu of all ages, and one of the profoundest remakers of mankind, is the "Kingdom of God" and that this kingdom is being governed according to the principles of the *śāstras*. "Out of compassion for the people", we are told, "God in his full favour has granted us this Kingdom" (p. 15). The patriotic ring is ever manifest in this treatise and the author is fully convinced of the noble mission of the Maratha state as the bulwark of *dharma* against the inroads of the *Tāmras* (Moghuls) or *Yavanas* and their allies (pp. 6, 11). This mission is not conceived in a futuristic manner but as something already : ..:.. ' : : as an achievement. For the student of Hindu political speculations from Kauṭalya to Mitra-Miśra and Śukra it is interesting to observe that even as late as the second decade of the eighteenth century an *Amātya* of a successful Hindu Empire should have felt proud to connect the methods, tactics, strategy and general policies of the state served by him with, and interpret them in the light of, the theories adumbrated by the "old masters" of political philosophy. The virility, tenacity and pragmatic utility of the *artha* and *nīti śāstras* of the Hindus are thus brought home to us in a remarkable manner. Simultaneously also the deeper foundations of Maratha political idealism and constructive statesmanship are laid bare. The *dharma*-mindedness of Maratha diplomacy and statecraft as well as the solicitude of the Maratha thinkers for affiliations to the permanent tradition of Sanskritic or Hindu culture are items that impress us most powerfully. Verily, in the eighteenth century the Maratha statesmen and generals were encompassed in their daily life with the same ideals and messages of philosophers, poets, and preachers as the Mauryas, Guptas, Vardhanas, Chālukyas, Pālas and Cholas of yore.