The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c5.s6.3

c5.s6.3

The emancipation of the political power from that of the priests has been well recognised by him. The state in India has thus been understood to be untheocratic "in spite of the assertions to the contrary in the sacerdotal literature". *Rien ne domine le pouvoir royal* (Nothing dominates the royal power), as he quotes the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*. The secular character of the Hindu state he discovers in the very science which governs it, namely, *Arthaśāstra*. Kauṭalya's treatise, says he, proceeds from an entirely lay inspiration (*procède d'une inspiration toute laïque*). Masson-Oursel is convinced that the Brāhmaṇas did not possess in the society the power which their literature leads us to suppose. The politics, not theoretical but concrete, depended on the authority of the Kṣatriyas and on the infinitely diverse circumstances rather than on the Brāhmaṇic ideals, says he. In spite of the monopoly of *dharma* by the Brāhmaṇas the Kṣatriyas considered themselves to be the organizers of justice no less than the wielders of force, and that is why, in his view, the "pretentions of the priest remained more speculative than operative" (pp. 99-101).