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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c5: Contents

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c5

Language
English

Contents

Contents

c5.1

| | | | PAGE |
| Publishers' Preface By Dr. Lalit Mohan Basu, M.B. | | | 1 |
| Author's Preface to the Second Edition | | ... | 59 |

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CHAPTER I.

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Positivism in Hindu Culture

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| From Comte to Tönnies | ... | ... | 1 |
| The Historico-Comparative Method | ... | ... | 3 |
| The Synthesis of the Transcendental and the Positive in Hindu Institutions and Ideals | ... | ... | 5 |
| What is the Positive? | ... | ... | 10 |
| The Positivistic Strands in Hindu Literature | ... | ... | 12 |
| The Place of the *Śukranīti* in Positivism | ... | ... | 15 |
| The Sociology of Müller, Sénart and Weber Under Challenge | ... | ... | 17 |
| The Dualism of Pareto, Fichte and Del Vecchio Acceptable in Social Philosophy | ... | ... | 23 |
| "Back to Kant" | ... | ... | 27 |
| Sorokin's Denunciations of Monism and Avoidance of Racial Obsessions in Sociology | ... | ... | 27 |
| India's Affinities with Eur-America in Sorokin's Analysis | ... | ... | 29 |
| Recognition of the Positive Background by Formichi, Bottazzi, Hillebrandt, Meyer, Breloer and Keith | ... | ... | 36 |
| The "New Indology" in Lüders and von Glasenapp | ... | ... | 40 |
| Secularization of Hindu Politics in Masson-Oursel and Berr | ... | ... | 46 |
| Survivals of Traditional Indology | ... | ... | 49 |

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CHAPTER II.

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Hindu Culture and Sociology in Śukranīti

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*Nītiśāstra* as Social Science ... ... 53 The Four Branches of Human Science in Hindu Thought ... ... ... 54 Universality and Relativity of the *Śukranīti* ... 56

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CHAPTER III.

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Landmarks in the History of Hindu Political Development

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"Greater India" comprised in the Geography of Hindu Culture ... ... ... 59 Cultural Developments down to the Mohenjo Daro Complex (c. B.C. 5000-2500) ... 62 The Vedic-Hindu Epochs (c. B.C. 2500-600 B.C.) 64 Hindu Republics ... ... ... 70 Maurya India (B.C. 322-185) ... ... 70 De la Vallée Poussin and Foucher on the Problem of Unity ... ... ... 72 Haushofer and Wüst on the Unreality of "Higher" Units ... ... ... 74 From the Āndhras and Kuṣāns to the Senas and Cholas (c. B.C. 240-1310 A.C.) ... ... 76 The Gurjara-Pratīhāras (c. 800-1200) and *Kleinstaaterei* ... ... ... 85 The Moslem Question ... ... ... 88 A Parallel Between Asia and Europe ... 91 Vaidya on c. 1000 A.C. ... ... ... 93 Kāśmīr (650-1339) ... ... ... 94 Vijayanagara (1336-1565) and the Marathas (1640-1818) ... ... ... 96

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The Sikhs ... ... ... 97

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Reassertion of the Hindus as Political Powers (*c.* 1650-*c.* 1850) ... ... ... 99

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The Geopolitics of Culture-Contact and Social Mobility ... ... ... 101

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(a) Mixture with Non-Indian Races ... 101

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(b) The Impact of the Lower Orders ... 102

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(c) Vrātya and *Varṇasamkara* ... 105

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(d) The Paretian Doctrine of the Circulation of Elites Modified ... ... 108

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(e) The Race-Pessimism of Today Unjustifiable ... ... ... 110

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(f) Contemporary Vertical Mobilities ... 112

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The Diversity of the *Nītiśāstras* ... ... 114

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CHAPTER IV.

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Mohenjo Daro Monuments vis-à-vis Vedic Texts (c. 3500-2000 B.C.)

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Mohenjo Daro Monuments vis-à-vis Vedic Texts (*c.* 3500-2000 B.C.) ... ... ... 116

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CHAPTER V.

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Vedic Ideology (c. 2500-600 B.C.)

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The Categories and Chronology of Vedic Literature ... ... ... 119

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Vedic Positivism ... ... ... 125

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The Perspectives of Vedic Political Thought ... 127

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The Pluralistic Make-up of the Vedic Culture-Complex ... ... ... 131

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| | | | PAGE |
| The *Puruṣa-Sūkta* No Index to Caste Origins or Social Order | ... | ... | ... 135 |
| The Vaiśya in the *Taittirīya* "Social Award" | ... | ... | ... 139 |
| Non-Aryans, "Lower Classes" and Śūdras in Vedic Polity | ... | ... | ... 140 |
| The Vrātya in the Vedic Milieu | ... | ... | ... 145 |
| Śākya the Buddha, a Ṛiṣi with a non-Vedic *Upaniṣad* | ... | ... | ... 148 |
| Divinity due to Kingship, Not Kingship due to Divinity | ... | ... | ... 151 |
| Vedic Origins of Hindu Political Speculation | ... | ... | ... 155 |
| Vedic Ethics through Western Eyes | ... | ... | ... 156 |

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CHAPTER VI.

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Pali Literature As a Source of Studies in Economics, Politics and Sociology (c. B.C. 600-300)

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| The Secular Aspects of Pali Texts | ... | ... | ... 159 |
| The Buddha-Kauṭalya Complex | ... | ... | ... 162 |
| The *Dharma*, *Artha* and *Nīti Śāstras* of the Buddhists | ... | ... | ... 163 |
| Buddhist Institutions and Ideals vis-à-vis Vedic Complex | ... | ... | ... 166 |
| Śākyan Positivism | ... | ... | ... 168 |
| Śākya as Remaker of Man | ... | ... | ... 170 |
| Law and Constitution in the *Vinaya* | ... | ... | ... 173 |
| The Social Institutions and Theories of the the *Nikāyas* | ... | ... | ... 173 |
| Aṣoka's Political Philosophy | ... | ... | ... 176 |
| The Dynamics of Buddhist Thought | ... | ... | ... 177 |

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CHAPTER VII.

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The Dharma-Artha-Kāma Speculations in a Pluralistic Universe* (c. 600-300 B.C.)

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| | | | PAGE |
| Non-Śākyan and Anti-Śākyan Forces | | ... | 186 |
| Jaina Teachings | ... | ... | 186 |
| The *Dharma-Sūtras* | ... | ... | 191 |
| The Chronology of *Dharma* Literature according to Meyer | ... | ... | 196 |
| The *Arthaśāstras* | ... | ... | 203 |
| The *Kāmaśāstras* | ... | ... | 205 |
| The Culture-Complex and "Old Masters" | | ... | 205 |

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CHAPTER VIII.

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The Kauṭalya Question

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| *Kauṭalīya Arthaśāstra* | ... | ... | 209 |
| Shamasastry, 1905 | ... | ... | 211 |
| Smith, 1908 ... | ... | ... | 213 |
| Hillebrandt, 1908 | ... | ... | 214 |
| Hertel, 1910-14 | ... | ... | 219 |
| Mookerji-Law-Jayaswal-Sarkar, 1910-14 | | ... | 220 |
| Jacobi, 1911-12 | ... | ... | 223 |
| Jolly, 1911-16 | ... | ... | 226 |
| Formichi, 1914 | ... | ... | 230 |
| Bottazzi, 1914 | ... | ... | 231 |
| Smith, 1914-19 | ... | ... | 232 |
| Vallauri, 1915 | ... | ... | 238 |

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| | | | PAGE |
| Shamasastry, 1915 | ... | ... | 238 |
| Fleet, 1915 | ... | ... | 239 |
| Keith, 1916 | ... | ... | 240 |
| K. V. R. Aiyangar, 1916-35 | ... | ... | 241 |
| Thomas, 1916-22 | ... | ... | 243 |
| Sarkar, 1918-22 | ... | ... | 245 |
| R. G. Bhandarkar, 1919 | ... | ... | 251 |
| Sastri, 1920-23 | ... | ... | 253 |
| Winternitz, 1921-24 | ... | ... | 254 |
| Hopkins, 1922 | ... | ... | 259 |
| Pargiter, 1922 | ... | ... | 260 |
| Charpentier, 1922 | ... | ... | 260 |
| Stein, 1922 ... | ... | ... | 260 |
| The Reliability of Megasthenes Questionable | ... | 261 |
| The Fortification of Pāṭaliputra | ... | 262 |
| Building Materials in Maurya India | ... | 264 |
| Pāṭaliputra Not Mentioned in the *Arthaśāstra* | ... | 265 |
| Kauṭalya on Forts Objective but Theoretical | ... | 267 |
| Hillebrandt, 1923 | ... | ... | 272 |
| Jolly, 1923-25 | ... | ... | 275 |
| Ganapati Sastri, 1924-25 | ... | ... | 282 |
| Jayaswal, 1924 | ... | ... | 282 |
| Law, 1924 ... | ... | ... | 284 |
| Monahan, 1925 | ... | ... | 286 |
| Meyer, 1926-27 | ... | ... | 288 |
| *Arthaśāstra* the Work of One Person | ... | 290 |
| The New Indology | ... | ... | 290 |
| Kauṭilya, a Title of Honour | ... | ... | 290 |
| Statesmanship *vs.* Scholarship in Kauṭalya | ... | 291 |
| Compilation and Originality in the *Arthaśāstra* | ... | 292 |
| *Kleinstaaterei* | ... | ... | 292 |

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Fourth Century, B.C. ... ... ... 293 *Arthaśāstra* not Younger than *Dharmaśāstra* ... 294 *Arthaśāstra* not Condemned by the *Ṛṣis* ... 295 *Mahābhārata* Politics later than *Arthaśāstra* ... 296 Chemical and Metallurgical Knowledge in the *Arthaśāstra* ... ... ... 297 The Megasthenes Question ... ... 298 Kauṭalya and Vātsyāyana ... ... 298 Keith, 1928 ... ... ... 299 S. K. Aiyangar, 1929 ... ... ... 302 D. R. Bhandarkar, 1929 ... ... ... 303 Johnston, 1929 ... ... ... 308 Pran Nath 1929-31 ... ... ... 313 Kane, 1930 ... ... ... 318 De la Vallée Poussin, 1930 ... ... ... 319 Dikshitar, 1932 ... ... ... 320 Breloer, 1934 ... ... ... 323 Indian Tradition as Starting Point ... 324 Megasthenes in Agreement with Kauṭalya ... 325 Kauṭalya as Chancellor of Chandragupta ... 327 *Arthaśāstra* as Document of Planned Economy 329 Kauṭalya = Tribonian ... ... ... 333 *Arthaśāstra* as a Comprehensive Document of Hindu Polity for All Ages ... ... 335 The Problem of Variations in Hindu Polity ... 336 The Welfare-State of Kauṭalya ... ... 338 Climate as Alleged Determinant in Hindu Polity 340 Planned Economy Old and New ... ... 343 Doses of Economic Freedom in the *Arthaśāstra* 350 Society and State in Hindu Politics ... 351

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CHAPTER IX

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From Kauṭalya to Varāhamihira

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(c. B.C. 300-600 A.C.)

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| | PAGE |
| Mahāyāna Humanism ... ... | ... 363 |
| The Positivism of the Jaina Siddhānta | ... 367 |
| *Dharmaśāstras* (Smṛitis) ... ... | ... 370 |
| The Tamil Classics ... ... | ... 372 |
| The Joy of Life in Literature ... | ... 373 |
| The Eighteen Purāṇas ... ... | ... 374 |
| The Epics ... ... ... | ... 376 |
| Varāhamihira ... ... | ... 376 |
| The *Vārttāśāstras* ... ... | ... 377 |
| The *Śilpa Śāstras* ... ... | ... 379 |
| *Kāmandakīnīti* ... ... | ... 381 |
| Hindu Positivism in Indo-China, Insulindia, Tibet and China ... | ... 386 |
| From Epicurus to Gregory the Great | ... 394 |

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CHAPTER X.

c5.47

From Harṣa to Hemādri (c. 600-1300)

c5.48

| Six Fundamental Formative Forces in Positivism | 400 |
| *Bhāṣyas and Nibandhas of Smṛitiśāstras* | ... 403 |
| 1. Medhātithi and Viśvarūpa ... | ... 404 |
| 2. Śrīkara ... ... | ... 405 |
| 3. Jitendriya, Bālaka and Yogloka | ... 408 |
| 4. Vijnāneśvara ... ... | ... 408 |
| 5. Gopāla and Lakṣmīdhara ... | ... 409 |
| 6. Jīmūtavāhana and Ballālasena | ... 410 |
| 7. Hemādri ... ... | ... 412 |

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| | | | PAGE |
| *Nītiśāstras* | ... | ... | 415 |
| 1. Brihaspati's *Sūtra* | | ... | 415 |
| 2. Somadeva's *Nītivākyāmrita* | | ... | 420 |
| 3. Bhoja's *Yuktikalpataru* | | ... | 425 |
| 4. Lakṣmīdhara's *Rājanītikalpataru* and 5. Gopāla's *Rājanītikāmadhenu* ... | | ... | 429 |
| 6. Hemachandra's *Laghu Arhannīti* | | ... | 430 |
| 7. Someśvara's *Mānasollāsa* | | ... | 432 |
| *Vārttāśāstras* | ... | ... | 436 |
| *Śilpaśāstras* and *Vāstuśāstras* | ... | ... | 439 |
| Hindu Positivism in South Eastern Asia, Tibet, China and Moslem Asia | | ... | 444 |

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CHAPTER XI.

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From Chaṇḍeśvara to Rāmmohun (c. 1300-1833)

c5.52

| Hindu Impacts on Islam | ... | 466 |
| The Humanism of the Modern Indian Languages | | 469 |
| Democratic Strands in Hindu Social Thought | ... | 472 |
| *Śilpaśāstras* | ... | 475 |
| *Purāṇas* | ... | 477 |
| The Positivism of Bengali Poetry | ... | 478 |
| The Doctrine of Political Deliverers as *Yugāvatāras* in Vijayanagara | ... | 494 |
| The Hindu Tradition in Maratha Politics | ... | 497 |
| The Anti-Foreign and Democratic Tendencies | ... | 497 |
| The Positivism of the *Dāsabodha* ... | ... | 500 |
| Rāmdās's Utopia of *Ānandavanabhūvana* | ... | 502 |
| The Pluralistic World of Śivāji | ... | 505 |

c5.53

| | | PAGE |
| The Cultural Nationalism of Śivāji | ... | 507 |
| Śivāji as *Avatāra* in the *Śiva-Bhārata* | ... | 511 |
| *Rājanīti* : ... ... ... | ... | 513 |
| 1. Chaṇḍeśvara's *Rājanītiratnākara* | ... | 513 |
| 2. Mādhava's *Rājadharmaprakaraṇa* of *Parāśara-Samhitā* ... | ... | 522 |
| 3. Vaiśampāyana's *Nītiprakāśikā* | ... | 525 |
| 4. Abul Fazl's *Ain-i-Akbari* as a Semi-Moslem and Semi-Hindu *Nītiśāstra* | ... | 529 |
| 5. Nīlakaṇṭha's *Nītimayūkha* | ... | 546 |
| 6. Mitra-Miśra's *Rājanītiprakāśa* | ... | 549 |
| 7. Rāmadās's *Mahārāṣṭradharma Bārhwāwā* | | 560 |
| 8. The Marathi *Rājanīti* of Rāmachandrapant (1716) ... ... | ... | 577 |
| The Fundamental Defect in Rāmachandrapant's Positivism ... | ... | 589 |
| The *Nīti* Tradition in Rāmachandrapant | ... | 593 |
| 9. The Peshwa's Diaries (1708-1817) | ... | 599 |
| 10. The Last Text of *Nītiśāstra* : Chitnis's Marathi *Rājanīti* (1810) ... | ... | 602 |
| *Smriti Nibandhas* ... ... | ... | 610 |
| Law Scholars of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries ... ... | ... | 610 |
| Raghunandana ... ... | ... | 611 |
| Legal Thought of the Seventeenth Century | ... | 615 |
| Bālambhaṭṭa and Jagannātha ... | ... | 617 |
| Rammohun (1772-1833) ... | ... | 618 |
| The Realism of Rammohun as Champion of *Vedānta*, *Purāṇas*, and *Tantras* ... | ... | 619 |
| The *Smriti* and *Nīti Śāstras* of Rammohun | ... | 624 |

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CHAPTER XII.

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Hindu Philosophy's Contributions to Positivism

c5.56

| The "Sensate" and the "Ideational" | ... 631 |
| The Geometry of "Between-men" Relations in the *Dharma* and *Artha Śāstras* | ... 650 |
| The Variables and the Constants in Hindu Positivism | ... 660 |
| *Index* I. Persons | ... 669 |
| *Index* II. Subjects | 678-697 |

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with this type of disquisitions. And they have not failed to capture also the indology as cultivated by the Asians, including Indians, especially those scholars who are as rule wrongly described as philosophers simply because they have edited, annotated, translated or paraphrased some old Hindu philosophical texts. Nor is this all. The social thinkers of Asia also have fallen a victim to the fallacious sociological methods and messages of the modern West, to which the postulate of an alleged distinction between the Orient and the Occident is the first principle of science.

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It is to furnish such *sûtras*, formulae and conventions of Eur-American and Asian indology with correct perspectives that the chapters of the first edition of Vol. I. of the *Positive Background of Hindu Sociology* as well as of the *Folk-Element in Hindu Culture* were published in Indian journals during 1910-14. It was the special object of the *Positive Background* to rescue Hindu culture from such one-sided and monistic interpretations whether they came from indologists, sociologists, geographers, climatologists, ethnologists, regionalists, political ideologists and economists. At the same time attention was drawn to the universal or cosmopolitan facts and tendencies in Hindu societal and ideological development. That the processes and forces in Indian social life are not peculiar to the regions, climates or races and religions of India but thoroughly "human, all too human" was the one clear conclusion of these investigations, comparative in essence as they were. The fundamental uniformity in the "world-view" (*Weltanschauung*) between India and Eur-America was the ideological atmosphere of the researches carried on during those years.

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The principles of the writings of that period were developed at length on diverse fronts of sociological investigation through my papers in Eur-American journals.⁷ The general attitude of Eur-American indologists, culture-historians, philosophers, economists, and sociologists in regard to Hindu civilisation and "view of life" was described in my *Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus* (Leipzig 1922, p. 155) as follows :

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⁷ See the *School and Society* (New York 1917), the *International Journal of Ethics* (Chicago 1918, 1920), the *American Political Science Review* (1918, 1919), the *Political Science Quarterly* (New York 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921), the *Journal of Race Development* (U.S.A. 1919), the *Journal of International Relations* (U.S.A. 1919, 1921), *Open Court* (Chicago 1919), *Giornale degli Economisti e Rivista di Statistica* (Rome 1920), *Revue de Synthèse Historique* (Paris 1920, 1930), *Séances et Travaux de l'Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques* (Paris 1921), *Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science* (1921), *Deutsche Rundschau* (Berlin 1922, 1930), *Annali di Economia* (Milan 1930), *Kölner Vierteljahrshefte für Soziologie* (Cologne 1931), and *Revue Internationale de Sociologie* (Paris 1936),—for the papers by the present author.

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"The impression has got abroad since Max Müller wrote the *History of Sanskrit Literature* (1860, pp. 18, 25, 29-31) and *India What can It Teach us?* (1883, pp. 97-101, 105, 107, 117) that the literature of the Hindus deals mainly with vague idealism, unpractical mysticism, and other-worldly absurdities, at best with metaphysical philosophizing. Besides, a few alleged pessimistic passages from one or two Buddhist books in the Pali language are erroneously taken to be the watchword of all Hindu speculation."

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In all the publications of those years the methodology of prevailing indology was criticized as being generally speaking fallacious on three grounds. First, it ignored, overlooked or failed to attach due importance to the positive, materialistic, secular, energistic and allied institutions and theories of the Hindus. In the second place, it was prone,—even subconsciously or automatically,—to compare the ancient and medieval conditions of India with those of modern and even contemporary Eur-America. And finally, it neglected as a rule to observe the distinction between institutions and ideals, i.e., factual achievements, and "pious wishes."

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The attempt in all these writings consisted, first and foremost, in exhibiting the data (both institutional and ideological) of Hindu culture from the positive, objective, humanistic and worldly side. Secondly, comparison with Western conditions was introduced on a large scale, but care was taken to point out, first, that it was against the ancients and medievals of the West that the ancients and medievals of the East were to be weighed in the balance, and secondly, that the institutions were not to be mixed up or compared with ideals whether for Asia or for Europe, but that *Realpolitik* was to be compared with *Realpolitik* and idealism with idealism.

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It is as an illustration of the application of this methodology that on fundamental points, as indicated in the preface to the *Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus* (Leipzig 1922, p. viii), the volume delivered "a front attack on the traditional Western prejudices regarding Asia such as are concentrated in Hegel, Cousin, Max Müller, Maine, Janet, Smith, Willoughby and Huntington." About the same time the *Futurism of Young Asia* (Berlin 1922) was published to indicate how as a result of the application of this method in the near future the social sciences were likely to be transformed and the relations between the East and the West placed on a really humane although rigidly scientific and philosophical basis. A main feature of this work consisted in the establishment of the uniformities, parallelisms, analogies and identities between Asia and Eur-America on the most diverse fronts.

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The new sociology maintained by the present author will not stand the "religious interpretations" of civilization as presented by de Coulange in his *La Cité Antique*. Nor is it prepared to accept the somewhat similar but modified position of Max Weber. In his *Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie* (1922-23) Weber speaks of the commanding rôle of religion in economic life. But his thesis is untenable as an explanation of historical facts. It may be admitted that religion was a social force in Hindu culture only in the sense in which it is used by Durkheim in his *Formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse* (Paris 1912), namely, that the very concept of society is in every region and age essentially religious. But using Max Weber's language we can concede that in India as elsewhere religion was but one of the diverse determinants of *Wirtschaftsethik*, i.e., economic ethics. While dealing with the landmarks of Hindu literature we should therefore take care not to be misled simply because of its religious externals and envelope.

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It is indeed desirable to resume to a certain extent the methodology of Zimmer's *Altindisches Leben* (Berlin 1879). Oldenberg⁸ can also be taken to a certain extent as a reasonable guide in so far as he maintains that "the Vedic poet saw beauty first of all in the human form, and in the appearance of the gods who resembled human beings."

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⁸ "Die vedischen Worte für schön und Schönheit und das vedische Schönheitsgefühl" (*Nachrichten von der königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften*, Göttingen, 1918), Eng. transl. in *Rūpam* (Calcutta) for October 1927.

The Dualism of Pareto, Fichte, and Del Vecchio Acceptable in Social Philosophy

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The specialization in the positivistic, secular, humane, scientific, rationalistic, and energistic data or factors of Hindu culture should not, however, be misunderstood as emphasizing or accentuating them to the exclusion of the idealistic, mystical, religious, and allied facts and ideas. It is not as an illustration of the monistic "historical materialism" or "economic interpretation" that has taken a final shape at the hands of Karl Marx or Achille Loria that the present study ought to be listed.

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Dualism or rather pluralism is, on the contrary, the key to the methodology of the present author in the interpretation of *viśva-śakti* or world-forces. The position of a modern Italian thinker, Pareto,⁹ in his *Trattato di Sociologia Generale* in this regard is acceptable. In his judgment historical materialism marked a noteworthy scientific progress in so far as it placed in clear light the contingential character of certain phenomena, namely, the moral and the religious, to which an absolute character was ascribed and is still ascribed by many. Further, it has, says he, certainly a part of truth because it asserts the interdependence of economic and all the social phenomena. But the error lies in changing this interdependence into a relation of cause and effect.

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⁹ Florence, 1916, Vol. I. p. 426, Vol. II. pp. 276-277., also *Manuel d' Economie Politique* (Paris 1909), pp. 18-19, R. Michels: *Corso di Sociologia Politica* (Milan 1927), pp. 14-16, 25.

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Equally acceptable is another Paretian viewpoint, namely, the one to the effect that the "economic man" is no more the whole man than is the "religious man," the "ethical man" etc. Extra-economic actions cannot be ignored in the examination of the complete personality. In regard to scientific purposes, again, says Pareto, it is possible to be "analytical." But *la practica è essenzialmente sintetica* (practice is essentially synthetic).

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It is the synthetic view that the present author stands for, and, as he claims, is the factual reality of Indian history and Hindu culture. Perhaps it is possible to connect the general scientific orientations of the present study in regard to the problem of religion *vis-à-vis* other items of human life with those of the classical German philosopher Fichte in his *Reden an die Deutsche Nation* (1808), Address VIII.

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The Apostles and the early Christians, says he, placed their faith in Heaven in such an extraordinary manner as to be entirely indifferent to the things of life, the state, *irdisches Vaterland*, the earthly fatherland, and the nation. This attitude is appraised by Fichte as an unnatural condition, as something outside the rule of the world-process, indeed as a rare exception. It is, further, says he, a very abnormal or perverse use (*verkehrter Gebrauch*) of religion, such as has been very often made in Christendom and other faiths, which without reference to the existing circumstances, recommends this retreating from the interests of the state and the nation as real religious disposition (*Zurückziehung von den Angelegenheiten des Staates und der Nation als wahre religiöse Gesinnung*). In the regular order of things, however, earthly life itself is to be regarded really as life (*soll das irdische Leben selber wahrhaftig Leben sein*) in which one can feel happy and which, naturally in expectation of something higher (*freilich in Erwartung eines höheren*), one can gratefully enjoy.

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In Fichte's analysis, it is indeed true that religion is the consolation of unjustly oppressed slaves, but it is still on account of the religious sense above all that people try to protect themselves against slavery and thus prevent religion from degenerating into a mere consolation of the prisoners. It fits the tyrant quite well, says Fichte, to preach religious resignation (*Dem Tyrannen steht es wohl an religiöse Ergebung zu predigen*) and to direct to Heaven those whom he does not wish to accord any nook or corner on Earth (*und die denen er auf Erden kein Plätzchen gestatten will an den Himmel zu verweisen*). In Fichte's words, we others should make it a point not to run after assimilating this concept of religion and, if we can, we ought rather to prevent the conversion of the Earth into a Hell and thereby awaken a greater longing for Heaven.

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Fichte considers the natural "drive" of man,—such as only in a condition of real necessity can be given up,—to consist in discovering the Heaven on this Earth and the eternally enduring things in his earthly day's work, in planting the imperishable and the immortal even in the temporal and in teaching in a manner that can be seen by the mortal eyes.

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It is the object of the *Positive Background* to demonstrate that Hindu culture, as it has historically grown through the ages and in diverse regions of India as well as Greater India, bears testimony to this Fichtean *natürliche Trieb des Menschen* (natural impulse or drive of man) and *regelmässige Ordnung der Dinge* (regular order of things). All the activities and ideas of the Hindus in regard to the *irdisches Vaterland* (earthly fatherland), the establishment of Heaven on Earth (*Himmel auf dieser Erde*) and the discovery of the eternal in the ephemeral or the transient are so many phases of Hindu positivism which it is the purpose of the present work to unravel.

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And in this position we can agree with Giorgio del Vecchio¹⁰ whose analysis leaves no doubt about the supreme value of each element in the personality. In his examination the orientations derived from the self are as "real" as those from the "not-self." *Cotesta dualità resta insopprimibile come legge immanente del nostro essere* (This duality remains irreducible as the immanent law of our being). The two terms, fundamental but antithetic, are equally (*egualmente*) legitimate and valid, says he.

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¹⁰ "Etica, Diritto e Stato" in *Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia del Diritto* (Rome 1934).

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The entire reality is to be referred equally (*egualmente*) to both these principles. Each one dominates and embraces the other but does not definitely eliminate it, because in its turn is dominated by and comprised in the other. Such idealism as is pragmatic enough to recognize the equal validity of diverse factors or elements in our *coscienza* (conscience) and *azioni* (actions), as does not consider any single motive by itself to be sufficient for human life and refuses to recognize in this or that particular tendency the intimate essence or supreme law of human nature can be affiliated to the philosophy underlying the structure of the *Positive Background* as presented here.

"Back to Kant"

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Thus oriented we meet indeed Immanuel Kant in another way. This philosopher's attitude to the universe is epoch-making. As is well-known, he postulated the thoroughgoing distinction between Nature (*Prakriti* ?) and Man (*Puruṣa* ?) or rather the complete independence of the sense-world from the moral world according to each a dignity and law of its own. It is the Kantian dualism¹¹ in a new guise that can render unto Religion the things that are Religion's and unto the other forces the things that naturally belong to them. Without necessarily holding the brief for Oswald Spengler in other items we are prepared to cry with him for "Back to Kant."

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¹¹ J. Dewey: *German Philosophy and Politics* (New York 1915) pp. 20-30.

Sorokin's Denunciations of Monism and Avoidance of Racial Obsessions in Sociology

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At the moment of writing the second edition (1936) it is possible to note that the cry for positivism in the approach to the problems of Hindu culture as well as the futuristic demand for reform in the methodology of social sciences, as raised during 1910-14, have to a certain extent justified themselves. Not only indologists and other Orientalists but students of anthropology, psychology, economics, politics and sociology have embarked upon a transvaluation of values according to an humaner, albeit more rational method. Perhaps the scientific world is gradually approaching the condition that was looked for in my *Chinese Religion Through Hindu Eyes* (Shanghai 1916 p. xv.), where it was claimed that the twentieth century demands a new synthesis, a fresh transvaluation of values, and as prolegomena to that, a new logic,—in order that the *idola* of the nineteenth century might be subverted.

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An important publication of recent years may be singled out in this connection. This is the Russian-American sociologist Pitirim Sorokin's *Contemporary Sociological Theories* (New York 1928). This work, encyclopædic as it is in its structure, is well calculated to furnish the "new logic",—the "critique" of sociological reason with which to demolish the *idolas* or superstitions associated with all the latter-day *isms* in social science. From the standpoint of the present author as developed since 1910 this historical and critical study by Sorokin is to be appraised as an embodiment, although mainly in a somewhat destructive form, of the "futurism" that is a desideratum in the study of human achievements and potentialities, race-questions and class-problems. Sorokin's denunciations of monistic interpretations constitute a conspicuous and sound landmark in the evolution of societal science. Another valuable achievement of his studies is to be found in the thoroughly objective manner in which he handles the data of the past and the present, the East and the West. He is not obsessed by the alleged "modernisms" but can discover their germs in the ancients and primitives. Nor is he possessed by the doctrine of "chosen races", but gives every race its due. Coming nearer home, i.e., to the special field of our present investigations, it is possible to mention several documents of substantial importance such as may be regarded as containing the rudiments of a "new indology", as demanded by the present author.

India's Affinities with Eur-America in Sorokin's Analysis

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We may commence even with Sorokin himself. In his sociological investigations Indian facts and ideas occupy a prominent place. He may, therefore, be cited as an instance not only of the "new logic" but also of the "new indology".

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Comparative sociography furnishes the data of Sorokin's *Social Mobility* (New York 1927). In this work the analogies, parallelisms, identities and affinities between the facts, institutions and movements of India and those of the rest of the world which it was a special object of the *Futurism of Young Asia* (Berlin 1922) to demonstrate have been brought out in a conspicuous manner. The treatise does not deal with ideas, ideals or theories but with the actual processes of life as developed in the diverse regions and races of the world.

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In the factual sociography of the world Sorokin does not consider India to be *sui generis*. "Interoccupational stratification" is considered by him to be a social fact of the past and the present. While describing the super-imposition of the caste-occupational groups in the Hindu system he points out that three of the eight guilds established by Numa or Servius Tullius in ancient Rome were more important from the social standpoint than the others. Among the guilds of medieval Europe there were some which were more “privileged” than the rest. The “six corps” of France and the *guilda mercantoria* of England are instances in point. Among the occupational groups of the contemporary societies also he finds “if not a juridical, at least a factual stratification” (pp. 99-100, 128).

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The rise and fall of groups as distinguished from the rise and fall of individuals is a form of social mobility in the vertical line. Indian sociography has arrested Sorokin’s interest in this regard. The processes involved in this group mobility as manifest in the ascendency of the Brahmanical aristocracy are considered by him to be identical with those that led to the gradual rise of the Christian Bishop, Clergy and the Church as a whole after Constantine. The rise and fall of the French legists as well as of the bourgeoisie and the royal aristocracies in Russia, Germany and Austria, nay, the elevation of the Russian communists after 1918 to the place occupied by the Czarist aristocracy, all embody the principles underlying the growth of what may be called the Hindu Brahmanocracy (p. 134).

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While establishing his thesis that there has scarcely been any society whose strata are absolutely closed Sorokin brings into bold relief the facts of vertical social mobility even in the caste society of the Hindus. He quotes Manu and Gautama to demonstrate that not only did the Brāhmaṇas fall but that the outcastes also rose. It is pointed out that “in the seventh generation,” as says Gautama (IV), “men may obtain a change of caste either being raised to a higher or being degraded to a lower one." He admits that in vertical mobility, although less intensive, Indian history was but repeating the stories of Greece, Rome, Egypt, China and medieval Europe (pp. 139-141, 161).

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According to Sorokin, in every country the intensity of vertical social mobility, fluctuates from period to period. India is no exception to the rule which is illustrated by China, Greece, Rome, as well as medieval and modern Europe. In order to demonstrate the universal character of the social processes in India he exhibits the epochs of caste-rigidity as well as of caste-decline as a series of "social waves" (pp. 145, 161).

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In the discussion of the rôle of learning as a "social elevator" or ladder and of the educational institution as a "channel of vertical circulation" India has her place by the side of China, Turkey, modern Western societies etc. It is pointed out, however, that it is to the upper social strata only that education and initiation are confined, these being forbidden to the Sūdras. Even in this item Sorokin does not find India to be exceptional. Similar situations, says he, "we find in some periods of the European societies also." He quotes the decree of Richard II in England to the effect that "no bondman or bondwoman shall place their children at school, as has been done, so as to advance their children in the world" (pp. 171-172).

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Among other channels of vertical circulation he mentions the religious organizations of Buddhism and Hinduism as similar to those of the Christian Church, Mohammedanism and Confucianism in their rôle as social ladders or elevators (pp. 168-169). In the field of successful money-making as social ladder, also, India has been cited for illustrations like other countries (pp. 177-178, 181).

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According to Sorokin all the mechanisms—the "sieves"—by which individuals are socially "tested", "selected" and "distributed" among different social strata are to be found in the Indian social organization. We find that India does not present a peculiar case. The almost sacred character of the family was as much a dominant feature of India as of Greece, Rome and medieval Europe down to the fourteenth century. The marriages in those societies were regulated by "eugenic" practices. In India as elsewhere the family served as a powerful testing and selective agency (pp. 184-186).

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The functions of the school as a testing, selective and distributive agency were as prominent in India and China as in the modern Eur-American societies. Incidentally, it is interesting to observe that according to Sorokin the Brāhmaṇas constituted the most "powerful aristocracy of biological and social selection." In order to pass successfully the test of the Hindu educational institutions the students had to display not only an ability to learn the Vedas but "extraordinary moral and social qualities." "Only men with an extraordinary will power and spirit", says he, "could meet such a test" (pp. 191-192, 194-195, 210, 545-546).

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One of Sorokin's inductive generalizations in regard to the vitality and health of *élites* is as follows: "The leaders and the higher classes of almost all societies seem to have been on the average superior physically to the lower classes." The care given to physical health in connection with the training of Indian Kṣatriyas as well as Brāhmaṇas was according to him a universal feature in the ancient world and is universal even today (pp. 269, 270, 272, 279).

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If Sorokin's *Social Mobility* is a study in facts and *Realpolitik*, his later work *Contemporary Sociological Theories* is, as the title indicates, a treatise dealing with ideology. In this work also indological material has been introduced by the author at every important stage of his discussions bearing on the present-day schools of sociology. He tries to exhibit the old Hindu thinkers as colleagues and comrades of the thinkers in ancient Eur-Asia, and all of them as precursors, suggestive or full-fledged, of the thinkers of the modern world.

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Along with ancient Greece ancient India is referred to in connection with the early enunciations of the "mechanistic school" of sociology, the standpoint, which interprets social phenomena in terms of physics, chemistry etc. The "materialistic atomism" of the Hindus is an item in point (p. 4). The "thinkers of ancient India" have likewise their place "among the great multitude of people who have tried to emphasize the various effects of geographical conditions on man's behaviour and psychology and on social organization, social processes and the historical destinies of a group" (p. 100).

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The "bio-organismic school of sociology" is described as having predecessors among the Hindus as among the Chinese, Greeks and Romans. In regard to the comparison of a society, particularly of a state in its social classes, institutions and social processes with an organism, especially with man or with his body and soul, or with parts of his body and bodily processes Sorokin commences with passages from Manu and then passes on to Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca and others (pp. 197-198).

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According to Sorokin what is now termed "eugenics" was very extensively practised in ancient India as in Palestine and Greece. He quotes Manu, Āpastamba, Gautama, Nārada and Viṣṇu to show that the Hindus like the Jews of the *Old Testament* and the Greeks of the *Odyssey* and the *Iliad*, Plato and Aristotle attached considerable importance to "blood," "race", "selection," "heredity" (pp. 219-220, 358).

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In regard to ancient eugenics Sorokin's *Social Mobility* (New York 1927), which, as we have seen, is mainly a study in institutions and facts, has likewise much to say. In this work also he places the Hindu "ideas" of "blameless marriage", "blamable marriage" etc. alongside of those of Plato, Hammurabi and Confucius (pp. 184-186, 208-209).

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The "sociologistic school" of sociology is described by Sorokin as that which interprets social or psychical facts as due to "interactions" and as the results of "correlation with a certain social condition." Among the first exponents of this school also he finds the *Dhammapada* and the *Upaniṣads* as well represented as Confucianism and Plato's *Republic* (pp. 435-436). The bulk of the old Indian philosophy and ethics (especially that of Buddhism), says he, is based upon the idea that our "I" or "Self" with its empirical properties, sufferings and joys is a product of social contact and exists as long as the contact exists.

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Sorokin is convinced that the consciousness about the importance of "economic factors" in human behaviour, social organization and the historical destiny of a society did not originate with Marx and Engels but that it can be traced back to "immemorial times." Among the ancient representatives of this kind of thought he finds Buddha, Viṣṇu, Manu, Nārada, *Vedānta-Sūtras*, Brihaspati, Gautama and Āpastamba in the company of Confucius and Mencius of China, and Thucydides, Plato and Aristotle of Greece, as well as Cicero, Livy and Pliny of Rome (pp. 514-515).

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Like the so-called "economic interpretation" of history or culture the so-called "psychological interpretation of the dynamics of the universe" also is found by Sorokin to be in evidence among the thinkers of the ancient world. Manu, the *Upaniṣads* and the *Dhammapada* are quoted by him in the same breath with the Chinese philosophers as well as Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Polybius, the Church Fathers and the majority of the medieval thinkers (p. 601).

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In Sorokin's sociological analysis there is a kind of "sieve" within each channel of vertical circulation whose function is to sift the individuals and accord them their proper place. He believes that every society from the earliest times has followed the "principle" that the social placement of individuals must be according to talent. This "ideology" he detects in Indian as much as in Chinese, Greek and Roman writers (*Social Mobility*, 1927, pp. 182, 208).

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In my studies on Hindu culture (1910-22) attention was directed to two fallacies of Orientalists and traditional sociologists. One was monism and the other was their inveterate obsession by the dogma of alleged distinction between the East and the West. It is interesting that Sorokin's works have not only challenged the monistic interpretations of culture and social relationships but the ideologies of race-distinctions also. In his historico-comparative and statistico-psychological investigations there is no place for India as a country in splendid isolation, geographical or cultural. The "facts" and "ideas" examined by him point to no extraordinary dominating or monistic impacts of region, climate or race. India's affinities with the rest of the world in institutions as well as ideology are thus automatically established wherever affinities are in evidence. From the standpoint of general sociology Sorokin's work as a reformer is to be appraised as considerable, nay, revolutionary. And its impacts on indology ought to be profound. For one thing, they are immensely calculated to militate against the indology as established by Max Müller, Sénart and Max Weber.

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*Recognition of the Positive Background by Formichi, Bottazzi, Hillebrandt, Meyer, Breloer and Keith*

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The "new indology" has found able exponents among Italian scholars. In the present author's *Hindu Politics in Italian* (1925-26) attention was specially invited to the works of Formichi (1914), Bottazzi (1914) and others. Italian approaches to Hindu politics and sociology from the angle of secularism and humanism are discussed subsequently in connection with the "Kauṭalya Question" (Chapter VIII).

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An exponent of this new indology in Germany is Alfred Hillebrandt who in his *Altindische Politik* (Jena 1923, pp. 1-2) commences his study with a criticism of the old indology almost in the manner of the *Positive Background*. "One who takes only the religious and philosophical literture of ancient intellectual life", says Hillebrandt, "will tend to the belief that it was exclusively given over to the eternal and transcendental questions and considered the things of this world as but nothing. The majority of modern writings, even of those which are directly based on the original sources, devoted as they are to the object of understanding the theory of the oneness of the *Vedānta* or the *Nirvāṇa* of Buddhism have created the impression as if the sages of India lived only on one thought, namely, as to how to escape the series of births and pains and to fly the actual world."

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Hillebrandt's own position is then recorded as follows: "But this was not so," says he. "By the side of the forest ascetic and peripatetic monk such as fled the world there was the unnumbered mass with its living and activities, there was the state with its solicitude for supervising and directing this life and work, and the groups of those whose concern was to investigate the requirements of life and help the state."

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According to Hillebrandt, "India possessed not only the world-escaping thinkers but also political heads and realists who were not inferior in equipment to the former." "These latter", says he finally, "did not live in the world of dreams but entirely in the actual world. They took men and things as they are, with "fine understanding of their weakness."

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The recognition of the positive background of Hindu culture forms the fundamental *milieu* in Johann Meyer's German translation of the Kauṭalyan *Arthaśāstra* (Leipzig 1926-27) as well as Bernhard Breloer's *Kauṭalya-studien* (1927-34). The subject has been dealt with at length in a subsequent chapter (VIII).

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As representing a transformation of the same character in the orientations of European indologists may be cited A. B. Keith's *History of Sanskrit Literature* (Oxford 1928, p. 450). In the same spirit as Hillebrandt Keith refers to the prevailing indology as follows :

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"The Vedic literature, permeated as it is with religion, affords a quite false impression of the Vedic Indian as a person given to reflection and religious practices without regard to practical life."

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In his own judgment "nothing of course can be farther from the truth ; the East, in lieu of bowing before the West in disdain or otherwise, confronted Alexander with an obstacle which he did not attempt to penetrate, and his garrisons had soon after his death to be withdrawn."

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The proper approach to Hindu culture has been described by Keith in a comprehensive manner such as accords to the "positive" aspects their due. "If we are to judge India aright," says he, "we must add two other objects to the *Dharma*, religious and moral duty, which is dwelt on in the Vedic texts. Already the *Hiraṇyakeśi Grihya-sūtra* (II, 19, 6) knows of the three objects in life, *Dharma*, *Artha*, politics and practical life in general, and *Kāma*, love etc. The epic (I, 2, 381) recognizes this set, the *Viṣṇu Smriti* (LIX, 30) and Manu accept it. It is found in Patanjali (on Pāṇini II, 2, 34, *Vārttika* 9), in Aśvaghoṣa and in the *Panchatantra*."

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One might easily challenge Keith as to whether *Artha* and *Kāma* were really ignored in the Vedic complex. He, therefore, anticipates that challenge by making his position perfectly clear. The Vedic antiquity of the economic and sexological elements in Hindu culture is established by him when he says by way of self-criticism that the "older system" (Vedic) no doubt combined these subjects as parts of *Dharma* in wider sense; the *Dharma-śāstras* deal with royal duties, capitals and countries, officials, taxes and military preparations as they do with justice, and the epic (XII, 58, 1) in a list of authorities of the science of kings (*rāja-śāstras*) includes Brihaspati, Viśālākṣa, Uśanas, Manu, son of Prachetas, and Gauraśiras who pass also for authorities on *Dharma*." Further, we are told that "the *Brihadāraṇyaka Upaniṣat* (VI, 3) incidentally shows that a wide knowledge of the arcana of love was prevalent in Brāhmaṇical circles, the holy Śvetaketu becoming a recognized authority later on the topic." "Gradually there must have sprung up," says he, "schools who studied *Artha* and *Kāma* in themselves and this is attested to us by the *Smritis* and the epics."

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In these clear-out and synthetic statements of the British indologist we have already the principles of positivism accepted in a forceful manner. The principles of positivism and humanism as developed between 1910 and 1922 have become integral parts, so to say, in the intellectual apparatus and cultural orientations of Indian indologists as well. Not only the direct quotations but the very words and phrases and the mode of presentation as well as the style of treatment found in the indological investigations of Indian scholars bear testimony to their assimilation, in a general manner, of the "new logic" as desired by the present author during those years.

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It only remains to observe that, as has been often repeated in the present work as elsewhere, sociologically or philosophically speaking, the futuristic logic of "positive background" does not contemplate, as it should not, any "monistic interpretation" of culture from the materialistic side. The monistic economic, political or other interpretations of cultural origins or developments are as wrong and misleading as the monistic mystico-religious interpretations.

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Attention may incidentally be drawn also to *Chinese Political Thought* (London 1932) by E. D. Thomas and E. T. Williams. The universal elements in the culture of the Orient, as exhibited in my *Chinese Religion Through Hindu Eyes* (1916), *Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus* (1922) etc., have been utilized by the joint authors of this work, dealing as it does with some fundamental ideas of the Far East, in order to establish Oriental positivism in the field of politics.

The "New Indology" in Lüders and von Glasenapp

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One of the latest exponents of this "new indology" is Heinrich Lüders of Berlin, the doyen of Sanskritists in Germany. In *Der Orient und Wir* (Berlin 1935), a book of six chapters by different scholars, Lüders has a paper on India.

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Lüders invites attention to the work of the Indian scholars of today, such as are interested in the study of ancient and medieval India, with approval. He points to the conclusions of modern Indian archæological and historical scholarship to the effect that the Indians were *nicht nur in sich gekehrte stille Denker gewesen* (not merely self-ruminating passive thinkers) and that their achievements can be placed by the side of the Occidental at any rate of the same period (*ihre Leistungen sich den abendländischen zum mindesten der gleichen Zeit, zur Seite stellen können* p. 92).

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His own position has been clearly exhibited by himself. It is not true, says he, that the strong tendency towards the inner and the other-worldly absorbed all the energies and led to inactivity and retreat from life (*Es ist doch nicht so, dass die starke Richtung auf das Innere und das Jenseitge nun etwa alle Kräfte absorbiert und zu Lebensabkehr und Untätigkeit geführt hätte*). In his judgment this was not the case even in Buddhism in which the nothingness of life was most strongly brought out (p. 86).

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According to his analysis one should not overlook the fact that it was after all only a small percentage of the people (*nur ein kleiner Prozentsatz des Volkes*) that practised *Weltflucht* (retreat from the world) and entered the Order to achieve Nirvāṇa which could be attained only in the monastic class. The laity which believed in the Order did not think of giving up the worldly activities (*dachte nicht daran ihre weltlichen Beschäftigungen aufzugeben*) and the renunciation of secular life was not demanded from them (*es wurde nicht von ihr gefordert*). Lüders refers also to the Jaina communities of today in which, as he says, the laity consists mostly of the commercial people. It is just the richest class that belongs to the Jaina laity in the same manner as the old texts report of the composition of the Buddhist laity of yore. The attempt of Brāhmaṇism to establish an *Ausgleich* (balance) between the life in the world and the flight from the world has also demanded Lüders's attention. The relations between the first three *āśramas* (stages) of the social polity in which *tätiges Leben* (active life), the study of the Vedas and the establishment of the family are prescribed and the last stage which is characterized by the *Streben nach der Erlösung* (effort to achieve salvation) indicate this balancing of the two motives in Brāhmaṇism, says he (pp. 83, 87).

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