The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c15.s1.21

c15.s1.21

In the present context there is space enough only to observe that the correct position is just the opposite. The *Arthaśāstra* of Kauṭalya is not a "seemingly purely secular work." It is a hundred per cent secular work, and a secular work with vengeance. As for Machiavelli's *Prince*, one will have to be precise in explaining exactly what one means by attaching such expressions as “morally cynical standpoint” etc. to the Italian statesman-philosopher. *En passant*, it is to be recalled that Machiavelli was the author not only of *Prince* but of *Discourses on the First Ten Years of Livy's History of Rome* and other works as well. The morals of Machiavelli can be interpreted in other ways too, as, for instance, in J. N. Figgis's *From Gerson to Grotius*.⁶ In Figgis's way of looking at things the “moral cynicism” of Machiavelli should appear to be quite a decent and respectable item in human relations.